It takes a little fire to ignite, to burn a whole forest (ancient saying).
The terraforming of Betelgeuse VII was financed by Caligula, also known as King Of Iron. In 2961, he paid the ISA with all money needed to terraform. Work started in two years and ended in 2996, eight years after Caligula died. He did not live to see his work done. He had no wife and no children, so there was nobody expected to take his legacy. However, surprisingly, two years before his death, he donated all he had to a teen, a girl named Giulia. Very little is known about what reason Caligula had to give her all his fortune and the leadership of the new planet. After all, they've been together for only an year. More shocking was that Giulia took the name Caligula II after Caligula's death and the title of queen of Betelgeuse VII.
It took a few years after Betelgeuse VII was terraformed until Giulia told the world who she was. In fact, she could not tell this to the world, because people would reject her without mercy.
Giulia was born in 2967 on a planet in Sirius. She was very smart and very good at school, a cute and polite girl, always trying to help others. As she grew-up, she was influenced by her father who was a merchant into thinking about starting a business. Even at 15, she managed part of her dad's shops and cargo ships.
Not known to anyone, even to her parents, she was a panophile (a rare sexual minority, a person attracted to objects). She was in love with a tree and used to spend many hours there. She tried the best to hide her sexual orientation, knowing that people will laugh at her. She knew about a guy who felt in love with a stone in a natural park and was arrested for this. However, her friends noticed that she loves to go for hours in the forest and followed her. They secretly spotted her near her tree, when she was singing to it. The next day, they decided to cut the tree down and burned it. When she arrived, she cried for hours. She sat near the fire and cried, just like her best friend has died. Her friends were watching in secret, but, seeing her crying like this, was too much for them.
Night had fallen and she still was sitting hear the ashes. She moved above them and the remaining smoke entered her nose. She tried to breath the smoke.
"Come with me. I will take you in my body", she whispered.
She tried to breath in the remaining smoke, to take a part of the tree with her. At that time, she was not a smoker and her body just couldn't handle this. She felt dizzy and needed to lie down. Still, she felt some attraction to this and found it somehow exiting. Despite the fact that she hardly managed to walk, intoxicated with smoke, she decided to start smoking. So, the next day she both her first pack of cigarettes.
Everyone at the high school was shocked to see her smoking. Her parents were so mad that they started to beat her. From that point, her life turned into a nightmare. But, despite all this, she continued to smoke more and more. She switched to cigars and pipe.
Then, at some point, her parents forced her to get into a relationship with a guy which was a rich businessman. She did not like that at all. It all worked until at some point he tried to force her have sex. At that point, she ran away. This thing made her have an anger for men with an excess of testosterone all her life.
She went to the surface base and from there to the space station. She took the first ship that accepted her... and that ship was carrying workers to Vega. At that time, Caligula just sold his last iron mine. It was just pure luck that Giulia managed to meet Caligula there. When they met, she was willing to do anything to get a job and not return to Sirius. So, he hired her to do paperwork.
It was Caligula who, in only an year, changed her life completely. He told her about Betelgeuse VII, the planet that will be a paradise for those rejected by the world. He told Giulia that: "If you hate men with too much testosterone, try to prove you are superior to them". Also, he said "Nobody else can understand you then someone from a sexual minority. Let's build a paradise where people like you can live in harmony together. There, everyone will understand everyone".
When Caligula died, she took all his remaining fortune and invested it in infrastructure for the new planet. But she was no longer Giulia. She was Caligula II. The day when the planet opened for settlers, she threw away her women clothes and dressed-up like a man, more exactly like a general, with soldier boots and an army uniform. She glued a mustache on her face and cut her hair short, painting it black. She took an iron crown and started work very fast. She wanted to respect everything that Caligula started and managed to do so. She dedicated all her life to the new planet, trying her best to make this a paradise for those rejected elsewhere.
As Caligula I wrote in the constitution, Betelgeuse VII will be something between a democracy and a dictatorship. There will be a single leader, with nearly absolute power, elected at every 5 Earth years and without the right to be re-elected. After the 5 years, the leader will answer in a public trial for all good and bad things done, risking to be executed or all its fortune to be sold. Caligula II knows that her power will end in 3001, so she tried her best to do anything possible to make the planet a paradise.
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But how is a day of her life?
Every day, during her 7 hours of official activity, she can be seen by anyone. She stays in her palace, which is just a simple building, on an iron throne, symbolizing iron, the element that made Caligula I rich. All what she does is public and anyone can enter the throne room. Everything is transmitted live from there.
She appears dressed as a tough guy. Her daily clothing include mountain boots, trousers tied with a chain instead of a belt and a leather jacket. Her black hair is cut short and partially covered with a simple iron crown. With no earrings, a piercing in her nose, male sunglasses and a glued mustache, at a first look, you would say she is a man. She uses to smoke cigars all the time. Her voice is affected by long time smoking, but still is that of a woman... and if you look closer, you can see the silhouette of her breasts behind the jacket.
From her throne, she watches and controls everything through drones and online connections. She respects everything written by Caligula I in his constitution and never accepts anything else. Betelgeuse VII is an almost tax-free state, with a tax of 0.4% applied to any transaction, big or small. For example, if you buy a pack of cigarettes, 0.4% of the price is instantly diverted to the state budget. The number of state employees is limited to 0.1% of the population. External politics are turned towards independence and neutrality.
Much of her time is spent on audiences, from various people who want to do business or anything inside her state. Each time something is against Caligula I's constitution, she stops the conversation and invites that person out.
Someone comes to her, from a bank:
"Your highness, I represent the ICB, Interstellar Credit Bank. We would like to build a few banks on Betelgeuse VII".
"You can personally come and build banks here at your own will, once you gain citizenship, but not owned by someone from the outside", she answers. "This is what the constitution says".
"If you accept my offer, the ICB agrees to give your state a loan of seven billion CC".
"According to constitution, the state is not allowed to have any debt. Dismissed!"
Then, comes someone else:
"Your highness, I am the ambassador of IGPP".
"Interstellar Gay Paradise Planet? How can I help you?"
"I am here for the incident in the town of Meteora. Four gay people were punished with a 500 BC fee for obscene behavior. I ask you, in the name of freedom, to cancel that fee".
"I know the incident. You know that Betelgeuse VII has 100% tolerance for sexual minorities, but each town has its own elected sheriff, but explicit, obscene behavior is punished. I could cancel the fee, but that sheriff was elected by the people in that town so it is their own decision".
"I don't think it is correct".
"An online referendum was started. Here are the results. 72% of the residents in Meteora gave a similar punishment".
"I suggest extending the referendum to the whole planet".
"Sorry, the constitution limits the act of referendum to the jurisdiction of the sheriff".
"But..."
"Dismissed".
Then, comes a woman:
"Your highness, I am Roma Gemini from UV Ceti. I speak in the name of 1500 women who have been abused in our system".
"I know UV Ceti. How can I help you?"
"We settled to Betelgeuse VII. We come from the body farms".
Caligula II takes a deep inhale from her cigar, thinking with much sadness. How much pain is in this world? Many rough dictatorships, to increase their population, started this practice. They sent women into body farms, where they were kept in cages and forced to become pregnant again and again. They took the babies and indoctrinated them from a very young age.
"My friend, she says, just tell me what you need".
"We would like to live together in a town. And help others come here".
"Well, that is easy", says Caligula II, making a big cloud of smoke. "I will contact an engineer and set a town for you. But if you want to help others come, I cannot do it. It is against the constitution to interfere into others' politics. If you want, you can pay for their ticket here".
"Thank you".
She calls a settlement technician and gives the woman to him.
Then she checks the budget: tax incomes and money spending, helped by two experts and other five persons from the press. Most of the money is spent for building new towns. In order not to harm the environment, large cities are not to be built. Each new town must have small metal houses, concrete roads, a small source of electricity and a rail connection. The town of New Bremen is not finished, but all the funds have been used. She calls the technician in charge, who appears on a large screen. He is a man, dressed in a woman.
"Minerva, why is not New Bremen finished?" she asks.
"Your highness, let me explain. We must have electricity and the dam needed to be much larger, so we no longer have funds for the houses".
"I have images of the dam and it does not look that much".
"Yes, but the foundation..."
"My drones watched you building the foundation. You lied".
"No! I did not lie!"
"I don't believe you. You have 40 days to finish work with your own money".
"But I..."
"Listen, Minerva! The next Earth year there will be elections. It's my head that will fall if someone finds out about this. And I prefer to save my head and cut yours. I will check back in 40 days. Dismissed!"
This is how her daily life looks like at work. In the rest of time, she is a simple citizen. She goes to a shop and buys food and lives in a small metal house surrounded by trees. She never hides that she is a panophile. People on the streets salute her like anyone else. Only in the throne hall she is treated like a dictator.
There is, however, a part of her life not much known. She built a memorial park in remember of Caligula I, with her own money. The park, which forms a square of 400/400 m, is full with vegetation. Along the alleys, there are cubes made of glass, hosting many items that belonged to him. Other founders who terraformed planets wanted huge statues placed everywhere. There are some who customized a continent to look like themselves. Caligula I was much different, he didn't want anything like that.
People come to the park and watch the items inside the cubes of glass. On each cube, there is a description written: Caligula's personal computer, his working table, the iron mining authorization, his first steel contract, his personal clothes and others. Many of his plans for Betelgeuse VII are shown here too, including data from geological prospects and reports from terraforming operations.
In center of the park, there is Caligula I's tomb with his real size statue. Behind it, there is a statue of the Roman emperor Caligula, from which he took the name.
Visiting the park is free, however people can donate. Behind it, there is a second place, but where you have to pay 4 BC to enter, which is expensive enough. Taking photos or filming might cost up to 1000 BC. There is no vegetation, but statues representing trees and bushes, while grass is replaced with gravel. There, inside glass cubes, are the items showing that Caligula I was a hidden transgender. One can see skirts, fake breasts and even wigs, together with make-up and lots of lots of photos made by himself. All his life, nobody knew about this, but now, on his planet, his secret life is known.
Still, there is a place that nobody can enter. This place is a metal building. Caligula II said that this building is to be opened after her death, saying that it contains some personal objects. Many people thought that the two were in love, however, by the time Caligula I employed Giulia, he already was too old and sick, while she was a teen. The truth is that he was an asexual.
Whenever she comes to the metal building, she makes sure that nobody can see anything, locking the door from the inside. There, she keeps a carbonized fragment from her tree. She stays there for a few minutes.
The building has a second room, containing plasticized sheets of paper listed from Caligula I's computer, together with the original files stored on a CPU inside a vault. Since Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, the ISA wanted an additional study to make sure that the star will not explode in the nearby future. However, Caligula I bribed the technicians who made the measurements. Everyone knows that Betelgeuse will survive 400 thousands of years. These data show something different: that the star will only last a few thousands of years.
A red supergiant fuses helium into carbon and oxygen for a million years. Near the end of this process, the core is inert, filled with carbon and oxygen, surrounded by a shell where remaining helium is fused. Then, when the inert core reaches a critical mass, carbon starts to be fused into neon, magnesium, sodium and oxygen, a process that lasts only 600 years. Then neon is fused, then oxygen, then magnesium, until all is transformed into silicon, in a multitude of reactions that last at maximum 20 years. Finally, during a single day, silicon is fused into iron. And then, when the core contains only iron, it collapses and the whole star explodes into a supernova.
The data shows that Betelgeuse has an inert core. It appears that the star is fusing helium. For how long will that core survive until carbon will start fusing? It appears that for 2000 to 5000 years, we are all safe. However, there is no data that surrounding the core, helium is fused. What if carbon is fused in fact? What if carbon fusion is coming to an end? Is everyone going to die?
Thinking about this, Caligula II feels scared. She feels the need to get out of the building. There is nobody outside. She carefully locks the door and looks up in the sky, where Betelgeuse is shining, big and red, like always.
"No, he couldn't be that wrong", she whispers. "You are fusing helium into carbon and you will last long enough for us".
She walks through the park and goes to the tomb where Caligula I is buried. She takes her iron crown and puts it on the tomb, not caring that some people are taking photos of this. For a few seconds, she thinks again: "What if Betelgeuse is fusing carbon and is at the end of its lifetime?" Then, she looks at the crown and thinks: "Hydrogen is fused into helium, then helium into carbon and oxygen, then carbon into neon and magnesium, then neon into oxygen and magnesium, then oxygen into silicon, then magnesium into silicon and finally silicon into iron. And iron is death to any star. Iron, the metal that made us rich and helped us terraform this world, is the metal that will kill us".
She takes the crown back and puts it on her head, then thinks: "But not now. It will happen in thousands of years... or even more, I think. The stellar study was done by one leading experts in stellar physics. He couldn't be that wrong. I don't think Betelgeuse will last 400000 years, but not 3000 years for sure. The truth must be something between. Maybe 100000 years. But for and as long as I live, nobody must know. After a few thousands of years, we will colonize additional planets".
She puts some tobacco in a pipe and starts smoking, watching the red fire, something common with Betelgeuse. After a while, there is no smoke coming out, just some ashes. She holds the iron pipe, watching some red rays of light entering the window through the smoke.
"Iron. The metal that helped us come here and the metal that will kill this place".
