Downbelow (planet)
Encyclopedia
Downbelow is a fictional planet
in American
science fiction
and fantasy
author C. J. Cherryh
's Alliance-Union universe
. It was the first planet discovered by humans with an advanced ecosystem
and, more significantly, intelligent alien life in the form of the Hisa. Pell Station, a space station
prominent in this universe, orbits the planet.
Downbelow features in a number of Alliance-Union universe novels, in particular Downbelow Station
(1981) and Finity's End
(1997).
During the Earth Company's drive to colonise the stars, a planet orbiting Tau Ceti
was discovered by a probe in 2093. The probe captain named the planet "Pell's World" and its star "Pell's Star" after himself. Pell Station was built in orbit around the planet, and the stationers soon began referring to the planet as Downbelow, while the station itself became known as Downbelow Station.
Pell's World is similar to Earth
, except for a perpetual blanket of cloud that covers the entire world, resulting from a predominance of green-house gasses
. Humans quickly established a foothold on the planet, requiring only gas masks and air tanks to breathe in an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide
and airborne biologicals
. They built research and agricultural stations in sealed domes that required no gas masks, and, with the help of the local Hisa, cultivated crops on the open plains. A shuttle
port for ferrying personnel and light cargo to and from Upabove (as the space station was called on the planet) was established, and a launch pad
for unmanned rocket
s constructed for lifting agricultural produce to the station. Heavy equipment and other large cargo was "dropped" to the planet from the station in capsules equipped with parachute
s.
That Downbelow is a living planet caused a stir, but it was the discovery of sentient
life that sent shock waves all the way back to Earth, sparking off moral, religious, philosophical
and policy debates. Then, to aggravate an already delicate situation, Pell Station became a source of agricultural goods and other luxuries, hitherto only available from Earth. This economic advantage disrupted the whole balance of power in the Alliance-Union universe, and became one of the main contributing factors to the outbreak of the Company Wars in 2300.
inhabitants. Also called Downers by humans, they are gentle and friendly primate
-like biped
s covered in brown fur with large eyes. They have no technology
, wear no clothes except for strings of ornaments, live in burrows and do not build housing. They sustain themselves by planting and harvesting crop
s, principally grain
. They also have their own language and learnt to speak rudimentary English
from the humans.
Care-free and playful at every opportunity, the Hisa only work when they have to. In spring, when the monsoon
rains start, mating rituals commence and they go "walk-about", abandoning what work they are doing and walking great distances, to the frustration of humans trying to supervise them. This migration is generally initiated by the females with interested males following, which leads to mating and new life. (Cheetahs on Earth mate in a similar manner, with a series of cheetah males, often brothers, chasing a female until only one remains in pursuit.) A hisa female does not conceive until her infant has grown and left the nest. Thus Melody, in Finity's End
, did not conceive children until Fletcher, her human "child", was gone.
The Hisa revere and worship Great Sun (Pell's Star/Tau Ceti
) which is rarely visible behind the planet's blanket of cloud. It is the dream of every Hisa to witness such a spectacle. Thus watching the sky is a part of Hisa life, and to assist them, they erected Watchers, giant stone statues with huge eyes that gaze perpetually skyward for a glimpse of Great Sun; the Hisa have given many such statues to the humans to erect on the station, since there, the Watchers can see Sun without clouds intervening. Smaller art objects include the famous spirit–sticks, similar to Hopi
prayer sticks on Earth.
s acquired from the Hisa. No seeds from Earth were planted for fear of contaminating Downbelow's biosphere
. Then they began recruiting Hisa to work the fields. By 2106, trade agreements were brokered with the Hisa to supply the humans with grain and other foodstuffs in exchange for medical help and limited technology.
When the Company Wars began in 2300, Pell Station found itself short of maintenance
personnel and began employing Hisa to do small repetitive mechanical jobs on the station. The Hisa learnt quickly and were more than happy to go Upabove because it gave them an unobstructured view of Great Sun. Travelling to the station became regarded by them as a pilgrimage
, in spite of having to wear gas masks in the oxygen
-rich air. The maintenance tunnels, however, were pumped full of carbon dioxide, enabling the Hisa to work without gas masks (and necessitating them for humans). The Hisa worked in four-year tours of duty on the station.
of the Hisa and the pillaging of the planet, however, came to an end when, during the War, a Hisa named Satin led an "uprising
" against the humans. They began resisting human demands and schedules, and stopped giving anything to human researchers and administrators on the planet. Originally the plan had been to give the Hisa a technology boost and help them into space
, but it became apparent that human greed had pushed them too far and demanded too much from them.
By the time the war ended, Downbelow in general and the Hisa in particular became out of bounds for all, but a select few highly qualified humans. Agriculture and research on the planet continued but were restricted to certain enclaves. The rotation of Hisa workers to and from the station was also drastically reduced. The importance of preserving Hisa culture and Downbelow's environment precluded providing medicines and technology to the Hisa, and while humans were often tempted to help them, the new hands-off approach remained strictly in force.
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
author C. J. Cherryh
C. J. Cherryh
Carolyn Janice Cherry , better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is a United States science fiction and fantasy author...
's Alliance-Union universe
Alliance-Union universe
The Alliance-Union universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It is the setting for an epic future history series extending from the 21st century out into the far future....
. It was the first planet discovered by humans with an advanced ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
and, more significantly, intelligent alien life in the form of the Hisa. Pell Station, a space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
prominent in this universe, orbits the planet.
Downbelow features in a number of Alliance-Union universe novels, in particular Downbelow Station
Downbelow Station
Downbelow Station is a science fiction novel written by C. J. Cherryh and published in 1981 by DAW Books. It won the Hugo Award in 1982, was shortlisted for a Locus Award that same year, and was named by Locus Magazine as one of the top 50 science fiction novels of all time in 1987.The book is set...
(1981) and Finity's End
Finity's End
Finity's End is a science fiction novel written by the American science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It is one of Cherryh's Merchanter novels, set in her Alliance-Union universe, in which humanity has split into three major power blocs: Union, the Merchanter's Alliance and Earth...
(1997).
Discovery
- For background information, see Alliance-Union universeAlliance-Union universeThe Alliance-Union universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It is the setting for an epic future history series extending from the 21st century out into the far future....
.
During the Earth Company's drive to colonise the stars, a planet orbiting Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti is a star in the constellation Cetus that is spectrally similar to the Sun, although it has only about 78% of the Sun's mass. At a distance of just under 12 light-years from the Solar System, it is a relatively close star. Tau Ceti is metal-deficient and so is thought to be less likely to...
was discovered by a probe in 2093. The probe captain named the planet "Pell's World" and its star "Pell's Star" after himself. Pell Station was built in orbit around the planet, and the stationers soon began referring to the planet as Downbelow, while the station itself became known as Downbelow Station.
Pell's World is similar to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, except for a perpetual blanket of cloud that covers the entire world, resulting from a predominance of green-house gasses
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
. Humans quickly established a foothold on the planet, requiring only gas masks and air tanks to breathe in an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
and airborne biologicals
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
. They built research and agricultural stations in sealed domes that required no gas masks, and, with the help of the local Hisa, cultivated crops on the open plains. A shuttle
Shuttlecraft
Shuttlecraft may refer to any smaller spacecraft, usually capable of atmospheric transport, such as:* Shuttlecraft , small space vehicles in the fictional universe of Star Trek...
port for ferrying personnel and light cargo to and from Upabove (as the space station was called on the planet) was established, and a launch pad
Launch pad
A launch pad is the area and facilities where rockets or spacecraft lift off. A spaceport can contain one or many launch pads. A typical launch pad consists of the service and umbilical structures. The service structure provides an access platform to inspect the launch vehicle prior to launch....
for unmanned rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
s constructed for lifting agricultural produce to the station. Heavy equipment and other large cargo was "dropped" to the planet from the station in capsules equipped with parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
s.
That Downbelow is a living planet caused a stir, but it was the discovery of sentient
Sentience
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
life that sent shock waves all the way back to Earth, sparking off moral, religious, philosophical
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and policy debates. Then, to aggravate an already delicate situation, Pell Station became a source of agricultural goods and other luxuries, hitherto only available from Earth. This economic advantage disrupted the whole balance of power in the Alliance-Union universe, and became one of the main contributing factors to the outbreak of the Company Wars in 2300.
The Hisa
The Hisa are Downbelow's nativeIndigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
inhabitants. Also called Downers by humans, they are gentle and friendly primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
-like biped
Biped
Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs, or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning "two feet"...
s covered in brown fur with large eyes. They have no technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, wear no clothes except for strings of ornaments, live in burrows and do not build housing. They sustain themselves by planting and harvesting crop
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
s, principally grain
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
. They also have their own language and learnt to speak rudimentary English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
from the humans.
Care-free and playful at every opportunity, the Hisa only work when they have to. In spring, when the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
rains start, mating rituals commence and they go "walk-about", abandoning what work they are doing and walking great distances, to the frustration of humans trying to supervise them. This migration is generally initiated by the females with interested males following, which leads to mating and new life. (Cheetahs on Earth mate in a similar manner, with a series of cheetah males, often brothers, chasing a female until only one remains in pursuit.) A hisa female does not conceive until her infant has grown and left the nest. Thus Melody, in Finity's End
Finity's End
Finity's End is a science fiction novel written by the American science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It is one of Cherryh's Merchanter novels, set in her Alliance-Union universe, in which humanity has split into three major power blocs: Union, the Merchanter's Alliance and Earth...
, did not conceive children until Fletcher, her human "child", was gone.
The Hisa revere and worship Great Sun (Pell's Star/Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti is a star in the constellation Cetus that is spectrally similar to the Sun, although it has only about 78% of the Sun's mass. At a distance of just under 12 light-years from the Solar System, it is a relatively close star. Tau Ceti is metal-deficient and so is thought to be less likely to...
) which is rarely visible behind the planet's blanket of cloud. It is the dream of every Hisa to witness such a spectacle. Thus watching the sky is a part of Hisa life, and to assist them, they erected Watchers, giant stone statues with huge eyes that gaze perpetually skyward for a glimpse of Great Sun; the Hisa have given many such statues to the humans to erect on the station, since there, the Watchers can see Sun without clouds intervening. Smaller art objects include the famous spirit–sticks, similar to Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
prayer sticks on Earth.
Contact
After contact was established with the Hisa, the humans took full advantage of the favourable situation that the planet and its inhabitants offered them. They began cultivating crops, principally grain, from seedSeed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s acquired from the Hisa. No seeds from Earth were planted for fear of contaminating Downbelow's biosphere
Biosphere
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...
. Then they began recruiting Hisa to work the fields. By 2106, trade agreements were brokered with the Hisa to supply the humans with grain and other foodstuffs in exchange for medical help and limited technology.
When the Company Wars began in 2300, Pell Station found itself short of maintenance
Maintenance, Repair and Operations
Maintenance, repair, and operations or maintenance, repair, and overhaul involves fixing any sort of mechanical or electrical device should it become out of order or broken...
personnel and began employing Hisa to do small repetitive mechanical jobs on the station. The Hisa learnt quickly and were more than happy to go Upabove because it gave them an unobstructured view of Great Sun. Travelling to the station became regarded by them as a pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
, in spite of having to wear gas masks in the oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
-rich air. The maintenance tunnels, however, were pumped full of carbon dioxide, enabling the Hisa to work without gas masks (and necessitating them for humans). The Hisa worked in four-year tours of duty on the station.
Exploitation
The exploitationExploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
of the Hisa and the pillaging of the planet, however, came to an end when, during the War, a Hisa named Satin led an "uprising
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
" against the humans. They began resisting human demands and schedules, and stopped giving anything to human researchers and administrators on the planet. Originally the plan had been to give the Hisa a technology boost and help them into space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
, but it became apparent that human greed had pushed them too far and demanded too much from them.
By the time the war ended, Downbelow in general and the Hisa in particular became out of bounds for all, but a select few highly qualified humans. Agriculture and research on the planet continued but were restricted to certain enclaves. The rotation of Hisa workers to and from the station was also drastically reduced. The importance of preserving Hisa culture and Downbelow's environment precluded providing medicines and technology to the Hisa, and while humans were often tempted to help them, the new hands-off approach remained strictly in force.
External links
- C. J. Cherryh's home page. Alliance/Union Chronology.