:: myzel - it's not a simulation ::

The Chronicle of Novac

Source
Novac is one of the first inhabited planets in the universe. It was originally named after the female scientist Rewosh Erwop, whose work finally ushered in the information age for all humanity. She not only discovered the energy – called Source – that was present on many planets, but also, with a large team of helpers, developed the Source Converter, a tool that allowed absolutely any material object to be produced from Source. It was, however, several decades before Source could be obtained without great risk. In the beginning a considerable number of planets were destroyed in the attempt to construct refineries for the extraction of Source.

Hans Novac
The problem was solved in a manner that was accidental and anything but glorious. The planet which was then still called Erwop had a Union that was strongly dominated by fanatical clusters of suspect character. The Unionhead of the time called himself M’bogab and came from the cluster “God Lords”. M’bogab was, in fact, a dog handler who had been convicted on Ursa Minor of cruelty to animals and his real name was Hans Novac. He came to power with the promise of finding all the Source on the planet and extracting it in order to construct paradise. As a mark of his determination he insisted as soon as he came to power that he should thenceforward always be addressed as God M’bogab.

God M’bogab
At that time only very small Sources were tapped as Source is very unstable. (Whole planets had been reduced to smithereens by deposits that were quite small. ) M’bogab decided that because he was after all a god and therefore understood the world, he would tap a much larger Source than had ever been attempted before. Although everything went wrong, the entire solar system was not destroyed, as had been predicted by the critics (then called heretics). Instead, only two cities were razed to the ground.

The Refinery
People were still not convinced of M’bogab’s divinity, but many regarded him as a gifted eccentric and enough supporters came forward who were prepared to risk another attempt at refining a much larger reservoir of Source. All were surprised to find that the Refinery was able to keep the Source absolutely stable. The critical size of a Source above which a Refinery could be connected later came to be called the Novac Factor.

Life changed considerably with the discovery of the Novac Factor. So much energy became available that everything that people needed could be produced in Source Converters. This meant that there was no longer any need for industrial production; the information age had dawned.

Information
Information could not be produced by a Converter. This meant that together with energy it became the most important thing in the universe. An information network that was under construction and which was to connect the whole universe was expanded into an information bazaar. More and more investors came forward who were prepared to build Publishers, the hardware needed to produce and distribute e-zines. E-zines appeared dealing with every conceivable topic. Many Clusters and Unions produced their own e-zines. Completely independent e-zines dealing with cultural, sociological and political issues also saw the light of day.

Although traditional industrial production no longer existed, there was still a workforce of men and women. This work force was essential for building and maintaining Refineries and Publishers.

Gates
Once information became available throughout the entire universe, an intensive search was begun for a method of moving people quickly and simply from planet to planet. A certain Willem Gates XXIII, a direct descendant of the twentieth century software tycoon, bought up a variety of developments and eventually succeeded in constructing a reasonably successful system of travel: he harnessed energy and combined it with management software to control the distribution of permissions for immigration and emigration. At first, he wanted to call the system Doors, but then decided, in a not altogether uncharacteristic fit of egocentricity, to name it Gates.

Anton Strömer
M’bogab (aka Hans Novac) succumbed in due course to madness and later, when the Union of Erwop recognised that its union rules were completely unsuitable for the new epoch, died, alone in his mansion, from social isolation. The man who eventually succeeded M'bogab and was elected as Unionhead was a certain Anton Strömer. Once elected Strömer immediately set about seizing all of planet Eworp's power for his own gain. The first vote which he initiated called for the Union to change the name of the planet Eworp to Novac. Anton Strömer was of the view that this would spell out to the whole universe the planet’s special position as the place where the safe utilisation of Source first became possible.

And that was the beginning of a not very favourable development…

Professor Ypps in Critical Discourses Regarding the Current Situation and Possible Future Developments in Novac
"Anton Strömer’s secondary unionhead yesterday withdrew, not altogether unexpectedly, into the private sector. Before doing so he handed over his seven power tokens to Anton Strömer, who is now in possession of all 23 tokens and thus is in sole control of state finances and of all the gates.

The former secondary unionhead went over to the Good Force Refinery run by Werner Pirker, who announced that the new arrival would take on responsibility for accounting and political networking. Werner Pirker does himself have excellent political contacts, having been for a long time a close associate of Anton Strömer. In the great energy crisis Strömer helped Pirker take over the reins of the Bates Force Refinery, at that time the largest Refinery in existence. Changes to the rules, which Anton Strömer brought into effect without a vote, meant that Pirker was able to achieve a monopoly position in the energy market.

On coming to office Anton Strömer called on us to put our confidence in him. Now that Strömer has all the power in the union, we are certainly going to need that confidence."

Theresia Neumayer in Good Morning
"It was announced today that the great space transporter Myzel has been bought by a group of dissidents. The group, led by Professor Ypps, has recently become conspicuous for its inappropriate criticism and its denunciation of Novac. Contacts within the spaceport authority have revealed that the departure flight of Myzel is planned for November 19.

When the members of this constantly carping, fault-finding clique leave Novac, peace and quiet will at last be restored here. If they discover habitable planets, we shall all be curious to see how their ideas work out in practice. It is likely that some of them will starve and that the rest will plead with whimpering voice to be allowed back to our good old Novac. That is without doubt why they always wanted to open the gates for all unions, so that once their plans had ended in failure they could simply come back and carry on trying to talk us sensible citizens into accepting their useless ideas for supposedly improving the rules.

Our unionhead Anton Strömer said in a statement: 'I don’t think Professor Ypps and his followers will really be missed by anyone'. There is nothing that one can add to that.”