To Boldly Go: New Beijing

Originally published March 17, 2014

GURPS Handbook of the Planets Inputs: Personal user number 119; System number 213.

Located near Federation space, between the border system of the Hub and the more isolationist colonies of Ariadne and Atoll, lies the colony of Henry Wu, billionaire industrialist of the 23rd century. When war broke out, Henry Wu fled, taking along the technology to ensure a comfortable and familiar world for himself. What he created was a world of himself, where all of the 40,000 colonists of New Beijing are his clones.

Wu System

The Wu system itself is barely profitable. Consisting of a set of cold icy worlds circling a dim red dwarf, it supports itself with a bit of mining and energy generation. The only world approaching Earth temperatures is a tidally locked rock orbiting close to the sun. Most of the inhabitants lie on the third world which features interesting (if dangerous) outdoor activities at least.

New Beijing Colony

The colony of New Beijing is entirely populated by clones of billionaire tycoon Henry Wu. Wu made his fortunes managing the money of others, betting on the success or failure of the corporations of the Sol system. His prognostications served him well when he predicted that war would break out. He invested his holdings in a pair of space vessels with new FTL drives, equipped with cloning facilities and a full library of Earth's genetic code. Then he fled.

While the entrepreneur is long dead, his “descendants” live on. Fairly traditional, most of the clones closely resemble their founder. Some deviate with alternate genetic templates and cross sex cloning. Thus versions of Henry Wu, or his genetic code at least, exist throughout the colony as children and elderly, male and female, and even with the space adaptions of the Tennin parahuman template. Most lead a homosexual life, though even those who have adopted heterosexuality keep to the taboo against natural childbirth, an important safety feature in a genetic monoculture.

The Wu's are of Han descent with dark hair, traditionally worn short, and deep brown eyes. Usually fit, they tend to thin out with age. Favoring the business styles of two centuries ago, they smile easily and are gregarious.

Since the original's death a century ago, the culture has slowly begun to fracture and evolve. The younger set are more wild, favoring variant hair colors and more flamboyant dress. Until recently most saw this as just a phase with the Wu's adopting the societal norms once out of their wild 20s. But recently a counter-culture movement has begun to gain traction, retaining older members and even coming to dominate one of the smaller space stations.

While Henry Wu bought himself a world of riches, his clones live with considerably less wealth. They extract some trade from travelers from the more distant (and isolationist) colonies as well as trading in reproductions of old Earth artworks and furniture, using wood grown in special orbital nurseries.

Aspects

• Everyone is a Clone
• Self-Love

System Details

• Wu: a M4V class star 8.7 billion years old. A tiny dim dot in the skies of its icy worlds.
• Wu I (Dongcheng): this small rocky world hosts a minor solar power generation facility.
• Asteroid Belt: this belt of rocky and metallic asteroids harbors several space stations including a single O'Neill cylinder completed a few years ago.
• Wu III (Hinggann): this icy world is used mainly for mining and extraction of hydrocarbons for industry.
• Wu V (Zhengyangmen): the most populated world in this system, Zhengyangmen features numerous resorts for skiing, hiking, even flying in its thick (if deadly) atmosphere.