The British Empire's Conquest of the Moon! (RAR!)

[Zor]

"To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could!"
Cecil Rhodes

In this scenario in 1900 some 9,000 English, 2,000 Scottish, 750 Indians and 750 Chinese people from the Hong Kong region (all between 15 and 30 years old and 60% of them being female and among them some 200 royal army veterans and as many British Policemen) are unceremoniously abducted from earth by a set of robotic spacecraft. Said individuals are transplanted offworld to a colony on the Ocean of Storm.

The colony consists of an continuous enclosed area composed of a series of boxy habitat modules about 90 meters tall covering an area about 16 kilometers by 16 kilometers with periodic with a quadrupedal layered set of thick transparent aluminum windows on the ceiling to let in natural light and LEDs to provide illumination during Lunar night. The side walls are reinforced opaque metal with modular sections which can be removed if expansion is needed (more on this in a bit). Beneath 3 meters of soil there is a solid lunacrete foundation. The internal climate of said area is regulated to be about 25 degrees Celcius. The surrounding landscape includes some forests, but is mostly dedicated to farmland for a variety of crops (including various food crops, fruit orchards, cotton, mulberries for silk and tea) as well as pigs, cows, sheep and a few horses. In total there are three thousand farms. There is also a lake covering about 1.2 square kilometers with fish and manatees. There are about six villages with Victorian Architecture, each with a small manor into which an member of the English Upper Class has been inserted. One of the villages is on the coast of the lake. These villages are connected by a small electric railway. At the center of the complex is Herschelston, a town housing about half the population and contains a few factories with various Victorian electric power tools and electric arc. Their are various libraries about full of British literature as well as British technical books. There is a small army base with a few hundred Martini Henry rifles and Webly Revolvers. Power is supplied from a set of nodes at the various columns.

There are also four stations (accessible by rail) at the edges of the settlement which lead to facilities which are outside the main habitat. These are The Foundries, largely automated self repairing industrial complexes which have a level of technology well above that which is generally available so long as resources are fed into it. The foundries are very good at making a limited number of things, they are as such...

• Water and Air
• Ingots of Metal and other materials (up to 850 tonnes per foundry per day)
• Lunacrete
• Synthetic Rubber
• Replacement panes of transparent aluminum for the roofs in case of damage.
• Additional General Habitation modules (pretty much what the main habitat is composed of allowing either the expansion of the main habitat or the creation, some assembly required)
• Compact habitation modules: smaller airtight containers with electrical atmosphere processors. There are three varients, the first is the standard module, a rectangular boxy affair about 4 meters by 4 meters by 12 meters which entry ports on either side, cubical hub modules four meters to a side with doors and transport modules, which are of similar dimensions to the but have a transparent aluminum viewport at the front end and a set of sockets through which electrical wires are set so that one can fairly easy rig up to control external electrical systems.
• Modular Airlocks: Modular self contained airlocks about four meters square that to be fitted onto General Habitation Modules
• Space rated Compressed air tanks
• Solar Panels: each is 1.77cm across and operates at 75% efficiency. There are some 400 square kilometers of solar farms surrounding the habitat which help meet it's power needs in addition to a small microfusion power system
• Power Cells: High Tech recharable batteries which weigh about five kilograms and have an energy capacity of 35 megajoules. Banks of these batteries
• Spacesuits: Each Foundry has a spacesuit assembly system and five fitting booths. To have a spacesuit made one must enter the booth, which will scan the person's dimensions and build a mechanical suit to said specifications. Each Foundry can make up to forty suits at a time and it takes 36 hour to make each suit. Said spacesuits are mechanical pressure affairs and can operate for up to twelve hours, has a built in watch, air counter, hydration supply, waste reclamation system and ratio with a range of about 500 meters.

The foundries also contain about sixteen airlocks allowing people to go outside ranging. These airlocks will only open if their are no unsuited people inside. In case of breech the airlock sections are automatically sealed off until repairs are completed. The foundries need to be fed raw materials from outside to produce material.

What happens for the transplanted Britons and for humanity in general?

Zor

[NecronLord]

Almost immediately the police evict the upper classes from the manors and claim them for civil use. By 1900, although there was a class system of course, the British had a keen sense of civil order. If the gentry don't have the means to prove ownership such as by deeds of title - which they don't - then they don't own anything.

Likewise, they won't accept the aristos having any authority unless they can produce some sort of commission from the Colonial Office or some other civil power - so they'll just put the aristos in with everyone else at best and more probably they extensively interrogate/torture the artistos for suspicion of collaborating with the aliens who have abducted them from their families (no one is going to be happy about that) given the favorable treatment they've received from the aliens.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Also, those trapped on the Moon would probably be working on a way to get back to Earth. Whether that's possible, or even permissible by the alien overlords/keepers is another story.

Assuming, on the exteremely remote chance, that some destitute inventor facing starvation and eviction somehow manages to discover how to build a rocket ship, and interests a certain secret society of rich old boys in his invention, perhaps a spacegoing version of theAriel will be in the offing.

Or, perhaps not.

A less tongue in cheek question would be what happens when Apollos 11, 12, and 14-17 discover these transplanted Brits in their alien lunar colony? That's six decades' worth of culture shock, including two world wars, the Cold War between the Americans and the Soviets(not to mention that your average Victorian gent would shit his britches the moment he heard about nukes), and ongoing British de-colonization.

The last one, especially, would be a bitter pill for the aristos and their families to swallow, that Imperial Britain is no more(and what would they think of the then-European Common Market, and the prospect of England joining such a thing), and that the Commonwealth which remains is no longer even a superpower. It might even be what radicalizes some of these Lunar aristocrats should they be able to return to Earth.

Which, of course, is another issue. The original abductees and their children have acclimated to one-sixth of Earth's normal gravity, which is going to make any homecoming difficult at best, unless someone builds an orbiting O'Neill cylinder(or one of those torus-style stations from many a 50s space opera)for them to get used to Earth's gravity again.

If Earth's multiple and various bugs don't do them in like H.G. Welles' Martians, which will be an issue whether Earth astronauts visit the Moon or Lunar colonists visit Earth, as six decades of Lunar living has probably lowered or eliminated any immunity to Earth-borne organisms in at least the children and grand-children of the abductees.

Then comes the international squabbling over the colony's sovereignty, diplomatic relations, its place as a pawn in the game of Cold War politics being played by both superpowers....

The above, of course, assumes that the colony isn't discovered until the Apollo missions, and not at the advent of radio telescopy. Even if the colonists don't develop telegraphs, telephones, or radios, all of that infrastructure requires power, and power generation on the Moon can and will be detected by even the earliest radio telescopes.

(visual telescopes might be able to spot the structure, if powerful enough; radio telescopes would simply confirm that something not natural is on the Moon)

That might be enough to kick off the space race earlier than historically, opening all the cans of worms mentioned above, especially the political one, just with different players.

[Borgholio]

Do the libraries contain information about their current situation and the technology of the base? Is there a semi-sentient AI or other kind of learning system that can help the abductees learn about the physics that make up the base, the various aspects of it as you described, how to use and harness the technology around them, something like that? Or do they have to figure everything out themselves about their new home?

[Zor]

Also, those trapped on the Moon would probably be working on a way to get back to Earth. Whether that's possible, or even permissible by the alien overlords/keepers is another story.

They are free to try to get back to earth, though the aliens did not leave them the means to get back to the earth. They are free to try to buil

Do the libraries contain information about their current situation and the technology of the base? Is there a semi-sentient AI or other kind of learning system that can help the abductees learn about the physics that make up the base, the various aspects of it as you described, how to use and harness the technology around them, something like that? Or do they have to figure everything out themselves about their new home?

Their are books on the subject of the base and explain about the equipment and their use well as information about the lunar environment, though said descriptions are often fairly straightforward, the information on Solar Panels describe that they are "machines which convert light into electrical energy" and then show how to install it or "A Foundry's internal mechanisms are managed by an machine intelligence who is solely concerned with their proper functionality and fulfilling what task it is given". There are a small number of robots which exist to replace windows broken by meteors.

Zor

[LadyTevar]

Almost immediately the police evict the upper classes from the manors and claim them for civil use. By 1900, although there was a class system of course, the British had a keen sense of civil order. If the gentry don't have the means to prove ownership such as by deeds of title - which they don't - then they don't own anything.

Likewise, they won't accept the aristos having any authority unless they can produce some sort of commission from the Colonial Office or some other civil power - so they'll just put the aristos in with everyone else at best and more probably they extensively interrogate/torture the artistos for suspicion of collaborating with the aliens who have abducted them from their families (no one is going to be happy about that) given the favorable treatment they've received from the aliens.

I have to agree. The manor houses and Aristocrats would have worked in the time of the East India Company, or the Napoleanic Wars, but not in Victorian England. There was still a stigma against those who'd "bought their silver" (as opposed to inheriting it from their ancestors), but Victorians were not as against upward mobility as in previous eras.
Also, the Bobbies were more trusted than the Aristos, but Indian (I'm assuming Hindu?) and Chinese were still seen as basely uncivilized.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Almost immediately the police evict the upper classes from the manors and claim them for civil use. By 1900, although there was a class system of course, the British had a keen sense of civil order. If the gentry don't have the means to prove ownership such as by deeds of title - which they don't - then they don't own anything.

Likewise, they won't accept the aristos having any authority unless they can produce some sort of commission from the Colonial Office or some other civil power - so they'll just put the aristos in with everyone else at best and more probably they extensively interrogate/torture the artistos for suspicion of collaborating with the aliens who have abducted them from their families (no one is going to be happy about that) given the favorable treatment they've received from the aliens.

I have to agree. The manor houses and Aristocrats would have worked in the time of the East India Company, or the Napoleanic Wars, but not in Victorian England. There was still a stigma against those who'd "bought their silver" (as opposed to inheriting it from their ancestors), but Victorians were not as against upward mobility as in previous eras.
Also, the Bobbies were more trusted than the Aristos, but Indian (I'm assuming Hindu?) and Chinese were still seen as basely uncivilized.

Given that it is Hong Kong, you can also have Sikh and Gurkhas(who are Nepalese)amongst the abductees, particuarlly as members of the British Army.

[Borgholio]

Their are books on the subject of the base and explain about the equipment and their use well as information about the lunar environment, though said descriptions are often fairly straightforward, the information on Solar Panels describe that they are "machines which convert light into electrical energy" and then show how to install it or "A Foundry's internal mechanisms are managed by an machine intelligence who is solely concerned with their proper functionality and fulfilling what task it is given".

So if they want to learn about the science behind how a solar panel functions or how to build their own electronic computer, they need to figure that out for themselves?

[Zor]

Their are books on the subject of the base and explain about the equipment and their use well as information about the lunar environment, though said descriptions are often fairly straightforward, the information on Solar Panels describe that they are "machines which convert light into electrical energy" and then show how to install it or "A Foundry's internal mechanisms are managed by an machine intelligence who is solely concerned with their proper functionality and fulfilling what task it is given".

So if they want to learn about the science behind how a solar panel functions or how to build their own electronic computer, they need to figure that out for themselves?

Yes.

Zor

[Sea Skimmer]

Awh..I thought this was going to be a case of the moon having forests and jungles and such, and the Royal Navy finding a way to sail to it using some obscure Greek artifact.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Awh..I thought this was going to be a case of the moon having forests and jungles and such, and the Royal Navy finding a way to sail to it using some obscure Greek artifact.

No, silly. That's Mars. Along with deserts and naked red women.

[NecronLord]

Awh..I thought this was going to be a case of the moon having forests and jungles and such, and the Royal Navy finding a way to sail to it using some obscure Greek artifact.

No, silly. That's Mars. Along with deserts and naked red women.

I would pay money to see Helium (or Zodanga, or even better, the Warlord of Mars and his armies) fight the British Empire.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

I would pay money to see Helium (or Zodanga, or even better, the Warlord of Mars and his armies) fight the British Empire.

You ain't the only one, believe me.

[Elheru Aran]

I would pay money to see Helium (or Zodanga, or even better, the Warlord of Mars and his armies) fight the British Empire.

You ain't the only one, believe me.

Goddamnit. Don't give me ideas.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Not even for a movie treatment of The Angel Of the Revolution?!*

Nah, never mind. Hollywood would just gut the socio-political bits, and leave in the airship combat action.

*My favorite Victorian-era SF novel

[Simon_Jester]

I find it so amusing how in that novel they could unironically call the protagonists "the Terrorists."

Of course, in those days, the association of "terror" was "revolutionary terror," as in the Reign of Terror in France. Which, from certain points of view, had been an act of 'creative destruction,' of productively overthrowing the evil rusty old order in a way that no mere moderate, step by step evolution of society could have done.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

I find it so amusing how in that novel they could unironically call the protagonists "the Terrorists."

Of course, in those days, the association of "terror" was "revolutionary terror," as in the Reign of Terror in France. Which, from certain points of view, had been an act of 'creative destruction,' of productively overthrowing the evil rusty old order in a way that no mere moderate, step by step evolution of society could have done.

They are Terrorists in the sense that they are using the terror of violent revolution, made possible by their monopoly on air power, to bring about the surrender and dismantling of a system which produces only poverty, inequality, and constant,relentless war which ultimately more destructive than their own means, and the replacement of said system with a better one where the wealth is distributed more evenly, equality amongst all peoples is a thing, and peace is enforced through the new system's monopoly on armed air power.*

Contrasted, of course, with the modern connotation of the word "terrorist," which means someone who induces fear and panic amongst the general public with graphic, brutal, violent attacks against civilians.

Which, in a way, is what the Reign of Terror degenerated into, as the Jacobins' agenda of public executions of enemies of the Republic became increasingly indiscriminate. Leading to Napoleon Bonaparte.

*As opposed to the gradual evolution of such a system, through, at least in part, the enlightened self-interest of the industrialists who are just as impacted by the existing order as their employees, as is demonstrated in Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward,.