Ceres

Centuries past, reeling from the environmental apocalypse on Earth, the superstates of the human community sought out worlds beyond their gravity well for salvation. Thousands of fission and fusion torches lifted up from the homeworld, carrying men and material to reach for the riches of the larger universe that was denied to them for so long. The four superstates carved up the solar system amongst themselves, making claims and drawing lines from Jupiter's Io to Neptune's Triton. Some bodies were claimed entirely by a single superstate; Pluto of the American Union is the prime example. Then, when the first commercially viable SLE was built, the superstates started to grab entire star systems.

There were a few major exceptions to the land grab. Mars was one, but it was, and still is, a scientific and engineering curiosity, the biggest, most expensive symbol of human cooperation, a continuous attempt to create Earth 2.0 within the Sol system despite the existence of perfectly habitable worlds in other systems. The cynically pragmatic, more important exception was Ceres. In a moment of clarity, the human community did not prime the strategically important dwarf planet for conflict. The bare minimum of government oversight was agreed upon by the four superstates, while international corporations stepped in to turn the rock into the most important trade hub and resource silo that connected the inner system to the Asteroid belt and to the outer planets beyond. Now, after highly efficient fusion engines allow non-stop trips from Earth to Pluto, Ceres Station became the corridor for outcasts of Earth to find opportunity elsewhere in the void, as arrival and departure from the dwarf planet was relatively affordable. The lonely found family, the wanderers found direction, the lawless found order to their lives.

And for that reason, Alex Clyborn loved the dwarf planet. Stepping out of the Audentes, he took a deep breath of the recycled air as if it was as fresh as that atop the Himalayas. The station was made of a series of rotating, tapered rings that cooperated with Ceres' natural but weak gravity to provide a fractional semblance of that on Earth. It was an old design --- Magnuski Station of the Silbern system used lavish drums --- but it was efficient, relatively low maintenance. Alex walked through the cramped streets and corridors, making his way to the smaller rings deeper into Ceres, where the Coriolis effect was more pronounced, the gravity more peculiar, but where even corporate surveillance was limited. His true home as a smuggler.

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