The Exodus Fleet, sometimes called the Exodan Fleet, is a collection of ships housing a significant portion of Humanity. It is the setting of most of Record of a Spaceborn Few.
History[]
The original Exodans left Earth out of necessity, when the planet became uninhabitable. The ships were constructed over several generations from melted down skyscrapers and other structures. Exodans wandered the galaxy for hundreds of years before making contact with the GC.
The ships now orbit a star named Risheth, gifted to them by the Aandrisks.
The Fleet[]
Homesteaders[]
The Exodus Fleet is composed of 32 homesteader ships and many smaller ferries, shuttles and satellites, including the partially dismantled wreck of the Oxomoco. Every homesteader consists of a main cylinder, which holds life support facilities, and a habitat ring. Originally, gravity was generated by centrifugal force. Aeluons provided the Fleet with artigrav nets when contact was made, though the main cylinders are still zero-g.
Known ships in the Fleet[]
- Asteria - the main setting of Record of a Spaceborn Few.
- Oxomoco - a homesteader that suffers catastrophic damage at the start of Record of a Spaceborn Few, causing the deaths of thousands of people.
- Ratri - the ship where Eyas meets Sunny in a tryst club.
- Newet - suffers an outbreak of the Marabunta virus prior to the events of Record of a Spaceborn Few.
- Dou Mu - briefly mentioned in a news transcript in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet as hosting the thirty-first annual Bug Fry Festival, and again in A Closed and Common Orbit.
- Al-Qaum - briefly mentioned in Record of a Spaceborn Few as the ship that Sawyer's ancestors came from.
All of the names are based on Earthen deities of the night, stars, astrology or cosmos.
Structure[]
Each habitat ring consists of six hexagons, and is divided hexagonally on the inside as well: six hexagonal rooms around a seventh form a home. Six homes surrounding a common area form a hex, which is a Fleet member's main address. Hex mates often cook together and help each other with tasks like raising children. Six hexes surrounding a hub form a neighborhood, with the hub containing everyday services such as medical clinics, cafés and playgrounds. Six neighborhoods surrounding a plaza form a district. The plaza is where schools, marketplaces and recycling centers are situated. In the middle of every district is the Centre, where the dead are processed. Thirty-six districts (six triangles composed of six districts) form a deck, with farms and manufacturing in the nucleus.
Four decks form a segment, of which each homesteader has six. Besides the residential decks, there are decks for transport, which contain pods to travel between districts, waste processing, and observation.
Culture[]
"From the ground, we stand. From our ships, we live. By the stars, we hope."
Exodans are known throughout the Galactic Commons as pacifists. They are a tightly-knit, egalitarian society that values their traditions. The original Fleet architects based everything around the principles of longevity, stability and well-being, ideas that have remained prevalent. Nothing in the Fleet gets wasted, instead going through elaborate recycling systems. Labor is not compensated: everone receives the resources they need to live, and barter is the most common system of commerce. Credits are used for trade with other GC species.
Human spacers often keep an eye on the Thread, Exodan Fleet feeds on the Linkings, for information on the state of the entire diaspora, as they often contain news from all over the Human territories.
In The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, it is mentioned that the Fleet Admiral at that time is named Ranya May.
Position in the Galactic Commons[]
Relations between Martians and the Fleet have previously been frigid, though these have improved by the time of the events of Record of a Spaceborn Few. The All Stories Festival invited members from across the Diaspora to Mars to celebrate their Human heritage. Four years after the Oxomoco disaster, Martian president Kevin Liu unveiled a memorial out of solidarity for the Exodans.
Exodans are generally viewed as anachronistic, choosing to live on board their homesteaders when they could settle down on the ground. Their frugality is often misconstrued as poverty.