1 Ceres (the smallest of the dwarf planets)
Formally named “1 Ceres “, it was first classified as a planet when discovered in 1801 and listed as the Terran system’s eighth world for half a century. It was the discovery of the abundance of its smaller, ragged and disorganized neighbors that changed its classification to “asteroid. In the early 21st century, that classification changed again to “dwarf planet” (also known as a “plutoid”). A less charitable classification might be “failed planet” because, though 1 Ceres achieved enough mass to take on a stable and (mostly) round form, it did not absorb the preponderance of celestial detritus in its orbital path.
Ceres is about 2.8 AU (Astronomical Units – the distance from the earth to the sun), or approximately 252 Million miles from the Sun. It has a diameter of about 590 mi (950 km) and its mass accounts for nearly a third of the total mass of the asteroid belt (870,000x 1015 kg). It has a 9 hour rotation (day) and a 4.6 Terran Standard year (TSY) orbital period. The outer crust is composed primarily of a very thin layer of dust and dirt accumulated over centuries of minor impacts from its asteroid neighbors. Underneath the thin crust is the miles thick layer of water-ice that has made human habitation on the asteroid possible. Below that is a hidden ocean of water just a few miles thick and below that the hard, rocky core.
In our setting 1 Ceres, become the central hub for cargo moving into and out of the Terran system. Known as Ceres Station, it is built on miles-tall pylons driven through the ice layer and anchored to the rocky core. In addition to gathering solar power from huge collectors that dot the surface of 1 Ceres, the pylons themselves collect kinetic energy produced by the action of the rotational forces on the ice layer and water ocean.
Ceres Station moves trade valued annually at more than 500 billion credits. Everything coming in from or going out to the various colony worlds is shifted on or off huge FTL freighters and smaller “insys” ships at the port. The Port supports more than 50,000 workers directly (including administrative, longshoremen, etc) of a total habitual population of 250,000 with another migratory population of some 50-80,000 at any given time (roughly the population of Chattanooga, TN).
Ceres has water ice covering its surface to a depth of about 50 miles and a thin atmosphere of water vapor, but no real air. Warm air inside the station causes rising water vapor to condense on the underside of the huge dome which covers the habitable areas. That causes all the “outside” surfaces of within the dome to be damp all the time, dripping and puddling and subjects to a kind of constant drizzle inside the dome. There are sealed buildings within the dome that are dry (at least dryer), but because of the Great War, Ceres Station fell into disrepair, so there are leaks and problems with rusting in a lot of places. The Terrachians put 100’s of billions into the Great War, and didn’t have any money to spend on little things like rust removal and repainting. So there’s peeling paint in a lot of places as well. Overall its a dark, seedy, rundown, damp and dreary environment — an unpleasant place.
I know it seems strange to talk about weather “inside”, but the same thing happens in the big hangers that NASA uses for the space shuttles and Titan rockets. There is weather inside those huge hangers and they expend a ton of energy trying to keep them dry with industrial de-humidifiers. Ceres Station has the same issues, but energy is at a premium because of the problems generating enough power. Things like “comforts” are the first things to go. Some of the residential areas have mandatory rolling blackouts as well. Public places, like jails, hospitals and police stations are supposed to be exempt from blackouts.
Ceres station looks like a spider on its back. Its legs (main docking arms for the FTL ships) sticking out and up with dozens of smaller docking arms for insys ships in between them. The dome is a sealed dome with hundreds of skylights nearer the top (the spider’s belly). Around Ceres Station in all directions are solar collectors that help generate power for the station. The rest of the power comes from kinetic collectors that are part of the pylons the whole thing sits on that go down through the ice to the rocky core. Ceres sits 100 feet above the surface. The city is divided into six distinct districts — Goddard, Von Braun, Dyson, Hawking, Sagan and Feyman.
Constabulary operations on Ceres Station are split into two overall commands. The Operations Command (the head of which is generally referred to as “D-Ops” for Director of Operations) is responsible for the Patrol Division, Investigative Division and the Special Operations Division (which includes surveillance, and other intelligence gathering operations). The Administration and Support Command includes Administrative Services, Technical Services, Training and Personnel and, Operations Support. The constabulary force assigned to the Operational Command on Ceres Station includes 539 sworn constables working out of six police precincts, the main administrative offices and a crime lab. While technically under the direction of the D-Ops, Customs House security is actually handled by a mix of constables and private contractors.
While not all precincts have a full roster of detectives assigned to it, high crime areas are manned round clock by a Squad leader (usually a Detective Chief Inspector – DCI), an analyst (Detective Constable -DC or Detective Inspector – DI) and at least one 2-man team of detectives (DC or DI) on each of three shifts.
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