Blamore Station

by Colin Dunn

Blamore is part of a small cluster of industrial stations orbiting Callisto. Thses stations are heavily involved in materials processing a produce a fair bit of finished goods, mostly intended for the consumer market. These stations have undeserved reputation for "cheapness" in their products, resulting in the expression "Made on Callisto" to indicate an inferior product.

Close approach to the Callisto cluster of stations

Blamor Station is one of the older stations in the cluster, dating back to 2178, when the Agora loosened restrictions on commercial industrial expansion. For the Jovians, the worst of the Fall was behind them, and people were clamoring for consumer goods and services. blamor was built to take advantage of the resources available on rocky Callisto, and served as a support station for the mines there, and later a manufacturing plant.

Compared to the giant vivarium stations like Olympus, the industrial-class stations are much smaller. Most of the population works in the plants or the support and service industries for the plants and mines.

Since the events of the Odyssey, the Jovian colonies have become much more watchful and paranoid. They've even gone so far as to arm themselves with heavy weapons, above and beyond the capabilities of present-day PDS arrays. Though these fixed waepons would be of little use in a full attack, they do afford the colonists some piece of mind.

View from the spine of Blamor, showing the heavy emplaced anti-ship missile and KKC batteries

The spine and hangers of Blamor station are decoupled from the habitat area of the station by superconducting magnetic bearings. The microgravity conditions are necessary for modern industry, and makes ship handling considerably easier. The habitat is held at it's north and south poles by the spine of the station, much like a roll of toilet paper is held by the holder. the power requirements of the industrial sector are satisfied by a heavy fusion plant at the south end of the spine, opposite the docking bay. The huge radiators are one of hte more identifiable features of this class of station.

Side view of Blamor Station

The scale of even these small stations is hard to digest, and one of the places where that is painfully obvious is in the main docking bay. The huge ships and cargo pallets look like toys inside the main bay. Though this vast expanse can be pressurized, it rarely is. Traffic is far too steady, and the leakage would be enormous. The large door at the end of the bay is usually just left open. If it's closed, its likely for security than any other reason. The vast bay itself is lined with several entrances to other, smaller bays, each easilty capable of taking a heavy-lift vehicle, or even a ship up to the size of a Mule.

Interior of Blamor Station's docking bay.

Due to the interface between the rotating and non-rotating parts of the station, access between them is complex. At the spin axis, there are several modules that spin up and down to couple with the habitat section. The process is somewhat uncomfortable, but completely safe. Exiting the spin-up modules leaves one at the train station, where three monorails depart every 15 minutes for the habitat floor. On priority calls, a VTOL can land at the stations, but the nearly non-existent gravity at the poles makes aircraft hard to handle.

View from an aircraft near the North Pole of Blamor Station

Once done inside the station itself, its hard to tell it apart from its bigger brethern. Its still big enough for clouds and haze to hide details in the distance, and sight across the sunline is extremely difficult. One aspect of life in the industrial station that is different from the others is cars. There are a great deal more cars and other vehicles in the industrial stations, and the layout reflects this. They aren't nearly as pedestrian-friendly as other facilties in the Jovian Confederation, though mass-transit is readily available.

Typical street scene in Blamor Station

Interior Map of Blamor Station 1. Green Belt/Park system 2. North Pole (Docking Bay Access) 3. South Pole (Fusion Plant Access) 4. Government Centre (City hall and theater/recreation complex) 5. Reservoir / Recreation area, high income housing.

Modified April 14, 2002

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