"Peter F. Hamilton - A Night's Dawn Companion - The Confederation Handbook" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

Habitats
These are bitek cylinders of living, highly modified coral (polyp), always found in
orbit around gas giants. All Edenists live in these enclaves, with the exception of
Atlantis (see page 53). In the Jovian system they orbit 550,000km above the planet,
which puts them above the orbit of Io and its lethal flux tube and hazardous ion torus,
but they keep well within the planetary magnetosphere, thus giving them a sidereal
period of about two days.

They are grown from seeds (teardrop shaped, approximately 150m long and 50m
wide), which are manufactured in specialist bitek stations, and are the largest artificial
creatures ever designed (voidhawks and blackhawks claim to be more sophisticated).
A new seed will be removed from its manufacturing station and germinated before
being attached to a small asteroid (1km diameter) which contains appropriate trace
minerals to support its initial growth phase. The first stage of germination produces a
membrane which envelopes the entire asteroid, and then digestion begins inside. The
membrane is flooded with enzyme fluid to break up the minerals, and these are
reabsorbed by a root network. Minerals and organic compounds are processed inside
the seed by rudimentary organs, and so polyp growth begins.

Once the basic cylinder shape is achieved, after four to six years, the seed and
membrane sac digestive mechanism withers away and disengages. The cylinder at this
point is 2km long, and is little more than an empty shell with a more sophisticated
digestive system at one end. A new asteroid is maneuvered into its maw (a
hemispherical indentation at one end, covered with spinelike cilia), and the primary
digestion process begins. Growth to full size takes up to thirty years, and several
asteroids are ingested during this time.


Layout and Composition
The first habitat to be germinated, Eden itself, is 10km long and 3km wide; the
second, Pallas, is 15km long and 5km wide. Both are still alive, as cellular
regeneration is constant provided the maw is fed with raw material. More modern
habitats are up to 45km long and 10km wide, with hemispherical endcaps, and an
external ring of starscrapers around the center. They rotate along their long axis to
provide a 0.9 gravity field in the park, and a standard Earth gravity at the base of the
starscrapers. Each habitat will typically house up to 2,000,000 people. The shell is
500m thick in total, which is more than sufficient to protect the inhabitants from
JupiterтАЩs (and all other gas giantsтАЩ) hostile radiation environment.

The external layer is made up from a crust of dead polyp 20m thick, which is
gradually abraded away by particle impacts and vacuum ablation, though there are
several surface sections of living sensitive cells which allow the habitat to тАЬseeтАЭ its
surroundings. These cells receive and interpret a wide section of both the
electromagnetic and magnetic spectrum, as well as being sensitive to elementary
particles. The outer layer is constantly replenished from the first living polyp layer,
which is nothing more than a sheath of living rock.

Above this is the extremely complex mitosis layer where the polyp is produced for
the habitatтАЩs interior and exterior. The mitosis layer is webbed with nutrient ducts fed