LGALAXY1 (PART 1 OF 5) LEGO SPACE HISTORY 2.0 1995 Erik Wilson erikred@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu 0) THIS DOCUMENT Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute this document as long as it is unmodified, correctly attributed to the author and no money is charged for its distribution. Questions and comments are welcome and may be sent to the author at the address listed above. Thanks are due to LEGO inc. for making cool toys, but LEGO is in no way responsible for the use or misuse of this document. 1) THE GAIAN UNION There once was a planet that was fragmented into squabbling nations ready to destroy each other and all of their planet at the drop of a hat, even the drop of a tiny plastic hat. Fortunately the wise among them persuaded the hot heads that the only hope for survival lay in peace and unity. Thus was born the Gaian Union, named thus to indicate the peaceful coexistence of all living things upon the planet. 2) THE GAIAN OUTREACH The United Gaians made great scientific advances. The greatest of all advances was the Jitlov Hyperspace Drive, named for its eccentric inventor. The first Jitlov drive was capable of sending a starship a distance of two parsecs, a great improvement over the "impulse" drive which was only capable of a one parsec jump. There were two adjacent star systems away two parsecs (Ceti and Eridani). They were quickly explored and soon colonists were on their way to new homes among the stars. There were other stars which could be reached by a further 2 parsec jump from Ceti (Plateau, Enfield & Python) or Eridani (Dacta & Billund). Not all stars in the vicinity could be reached using the 2 parsec Jitlov drive, no matter how many "jumps" from star system to star system one made. Those that could be visited using the were collectively called the "Gaian Reach". The star systems colonized by the Gaians were collectively referred to as the "Gaian Outreach" including those outside of the Gaian Reach that were eventually colonized by the use of the as yet to be invented 3 parsec Jitlov Hyperspace Drive. Colonization was soon proceeding at a rapid rate and star-faring trade routes were coming to be economically important when the Jitlov drive revealed a nasty surprise. 3) THE MINIFIGS As it turned out exposure to the Jitlov drive caused irreversible (and poorly understood) alterations in the genetic material of those who crossed the great gulfs between the stars. The effects were not seen in those exposed, but only in their children or even their grandchildren. Finally it became apparent that it was an unavoidable but nonfatal consequence of hyperspace travel. The victims were could be identified by their smooth waxy yellowish complexion, their thin dark lips and their beady eyes which made some remark on their resemblance to cartoon characters. Racial discrimination, successfully eradicated by the Gaian Union returned as the normal Gaians began to treat the descendants of the hyperspace travellers as monsters. Cruel names were attached to their affliction, such as "the disfigured" or "the mickey disfigured", a snide reference to their cartoon like appearance. Since large numbers of starship crewmembers were female (due to their superior endurance), they came to be called the "minnie disfigured". The more politically correct of the Gaians politely shortened it to "minnie figured" because the dis prefix constituted a lack of respect. Eventually the star travellers came to be considered as a separate race often referred to as the "Minniefigs" or more usually the "Minifigs". 4) THE TRONS :) The leaders of the Gaian Union came to fear the Minifigs, worrying that they might rebel against their increasingly unfair treatment at the hands of the normal Gaians, so they created the Trons. The Trons were a genetically engineered form of Gaian, specially made to be loyal, resourceful, intelligent, hardy and suited to the rigors of space travel. Since the Trons were genetically identical and only reproduced by cloning, the Gaians believed that they would remain loyal and cheerful at all times (the Trons have identical smiley faces :) and thus allow the Gaian leaders to use the Trons to oppress the Minifigs. Unfortunately for the Gaian leaders, the Jitlov drive affected the Tron genetic material when it was shipped out top the vast cloning farms on the colony worlds. The mechanism by which this occurred still has biologists puzzled to this day, but all Trons became afflicted by the Minifig condition, thus Trons are considered to be a subspecies of the Minifig race. Sometimes the terms Minifig and Tron are used interchangeably but there are still some "non-Tron" Minifigs who are not genetically identical. Despite this unforseen occurrence the Gaian leaders went ahead with their plan to spread Trons throughout the colonies. 5) THE THREE PARSEC JITLOV DRIVE At this time the scientists of the Gaian Union developed an improved Jitlov Hyperspace drive that was capable of crossing a distance of three parsecs. The disadvantages of the drive were its great expense and that it burned out after one use. Thus Gaian ships could cross to adjacent groups of stars or "reaches" (stars mutually accessible by a path of 2 parsec jumps), but could not return. Even so, exploration was carried out by carriers which hauled small return ships with them. The most famous explorers of this period were the legendary Bill and Mary who explored the greater part of the Gaian Sector. After the explorers came massive waves of new colonization which was carried out by huge mother ships which were then cannibalized for parts by the new colony. The vast majority of the new colonists were cloned Trons, in fact one adjacent reach was named the "Tron Reach" because of this. The Gaian Reach and the Tron Reach are the two largest known reaches, they have no known end and thus are referred to as "limitless reaches". There is no known point at which the two reaches connect by a two parsec or less jump. There are also several smaller reaches that have known limits that were colonized at this time. They are the Astron Reach, the Jewel Reach, the Arcolony Reach and the Dark Reach. These new reaches were colonized mainly by Trons but also by some non-Tron Minifigs. The Gaian Reach itself also received massive influxes of Trons so that even there the non-Tron Minifigs came to be a minority. The Tron Reach was colonized almost exclusively by Trons with the exception of the oldest colony in the reach, Shalmirane. After many years of one-way colonization, Gaian scientists finally developed a reliable and reusable 3 parsec Jitlov hyperspace drive, although it did remain extremely expensive to manufacture. This allowed the increasingly heavy hand of Gaian central authority to be extended to the newer colonies in the other reaches. 6) ALIEN CONTACTS The spread of Gaian exploration and colonization eventually led them into contact with alien races, particularly after the invention of the 3 parsec Jitlov drive. The earliest aliens contacted were the Awful Green Things From Outer Space, a race of aliens who lived in the distant part of the Gaian Reach past the Striker system. The next contact was with the remnants of an earlier empire, the Duplo Outreach. The Duplofolk had once invented a stardrive themselves but had lost the technology in some ancient catastrophe. Duplo ruins were occasionally found on other planets throughout the Tron and Jewel Reaches. Other alien contacts were the "Bluetrons" (they were not really Trons or even all that blue, but they did live in the further part of the Tron Reach), the Technic Giants and the related Bellevue people (in the Arcolony Reach), the Tyconauts (in the Astron Reach), the Ritviks (in the Jewel Reach), the Dragons (in the Dark Reach) and the Arachnoids (in the Gaian Reach beyond the Awful Green Things >From Outer Space). Only the Arachnoids had technology even close to rivaling the Gaians and they had only developed a two parsec hyperspace drive before becoming somewhat stagnant technologically. These early contacts were mainly peaceful and some trade agreements were developed with the various aliens. 7) THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE ORIGINAL SPACE PEOPLE The inhabitants of the Gaian Outreach achieved a level of civilization that has (in the opinion of many) never since been equaled. Art, literature and architecture flourished. The space lanes were plied by Galactic Explorers, Starfleet Voyagers, Galaxy Commanders, Cosmic Fleet Voyagers and other starships of the golden age. The main colony worlds began to rival Gaia itself in terms of economic and cultural advancement. Each of the most important colony worlds had their own distinctive color of spacesuit. There were Epcot (white), Plateau (red), Trantor (yellow), Enfield (blue), Trafalgar (black), Dacta (green), Ceti (orange) and Eridani (pink). The spacesuits of this period were usually equipped with Maxwell helmets which needed no visor because they maintained a small forcefield which kept the breathing air from escaping into the vacuum of space. The technology used to manufacture Maxwell helmets was later lost and has only recently been rediscovered. Maxwell helmets are not in wide usage today as they can no longer be made as safely and reliably as they could in the time of the original space people. 8) THE MINIFIG REVOLUTION It was no surprise that harsh Gaian repression eventually led to rebellion. The surprise was that the first blow was struck not by the increasingly disaffected non-Tron Minifigs but by the supposedly loyal Tron clones. Trons on the Tron Reach colony of Trafalgar lodged a peaceful protest against the policies of the oppressive and arbitrary policies of the insane Gaian governor General Martinet and were met by a hail of plastic bullets. The Tron were shocked from their customary good natured obedience by this gross waste of loyal productive Tron lives and they decided that the governor had malfunctioned and must be removed for the good of the Tron and as well as their Gaian overlords. When the news of Martinets overthrow reached Gaia, reaction was swift and harsh. Police units, such as the Night-Patrollers, the Pursuit Squad, the Surveillance Squad, the Black & Tans and the NKVD were dispatched with orders to brutally repress all Tron resistance wherever it might be found. This was exactly the wrong policy. Trons all across the Gaian Outreach came to believe that the Gaian government that brutally murdered many of the most loyal and trustworthy of Tron workers had become as insane as Martinet had been. Revolution spread across the Tron worlds and the Gaians branded the rebelling Trons as "renegade Trons" or "Black Trons" which came to be a label of pride among the Trons. Trafalgar colony, the home of the black original space people, itself was later renamed "Blacktron" and the most of the other colonies of the Tron Reach added "Tron" to their names to indicate solidarity with the rebels. The non-Tron Minifig colonists of the Gaian and other reaches quickly used the opportunity to join the revolt although their relations with the Black Tron were sometimes rather strained. 9) THE BERSERKERS The revolution spread like wildfire. The Gaian leadership panicked and began the construction of a series of monstrous warships crewed by giant robots programmed to destroy all life except the inhabitants of Gaia itself. The Berserker fleet wrought terrible damage to the nearer worlds of the Gaian Reach (completely destroying Ceti and almost destroying Eridani) before crossing over into the Tron Reach in an attempt to destroy the center of the Black Tron rebellion. It was there that admiral Nels Tron of the planet Trafalgar, (soon to be renamed Blacktron) the commander of the United Rebel fleet, outmaneuvered and defeated the ponderous berserkers. The Berserkers managed to retreat to the outskirts of the colonized part of the Tron Reach (now known as the "Berserker Corridor") with the remnants of their fleet. Even to this day the berserkers under the command of their robot leaders Admiral Tobor and General Gort conduct raids upon any inhabited planet that they can get to, usually within the Tron or Jewel Reaches. Fortunately the Berserker fleet can no longer reliably make 3 parsec jumps due to lack of maintenance and repair so most worlds are spared from the specter of Berserker attack. Both Trons and non-Tron Minifigs were so incensed by Berserkers and so fearful of a new fleet of Berserkers being constructed that they assembled the mightiest star fleet ever seen, overwhelmed the powerful planetary defenses of Gaia itself and bombed Gaia into a smoking mass of melted plastic. The "normal" Gaians, now often referred to as the "Old Gaians" or the "Old Ones" were wiped out of existence. END OF LGALAXY 1 (PART 1 OF 5)