Moria Mining
| Morians | |
| Nicknames | Dwarves |
|---|---|
| Home Base | Moria Mines, Moria CHONics ships |
| Population (2015 rough) | unknown (probably below a thousand) |
| Political Influence | Minor |
| Allies | Brains (minor), Stellvia (secret) |
| Major Achievements | CHON Trading |
| Stereotype | Secretive, surly, dwarves; "Nasty, brutish and short". |
Created by Ace Dreamer.
Mid Spring 2008-2009, UK/Luna
Moria Mining started as a bit of a joke between Brains and a number of other heavily-built members of British 'Maker' fandom. They'd all heard of handwavium, and some of them were experimenting with it, though keeping this pretty quiet. Things came to a head when James Kaden remarked that both his parents had cancer, and were very likely to die within a year or so. And, where were all those wonderful 21st century medical advances everyone had been promised?
This was mid-Spring 2008, and Brains got in contact with some friends, Maureen and Dave, who had recently 'gone up'. They were still getting established, but they put Brains in contact with others still in the UK who were investigating medical uses of handwavium. Another member of Moria Mining, Dora J., had leukaemia which was almost certain to kill her, and she volunteered as an experimental biomod subject.
Working on the theory that handwavium needed a theme, and dwarves were a pretty tough race rarely affected by disease, they dissolved everything they could find on the appropriate sort of dwarves in a medical variety of handwavium, which had produced the most reliable set of biomods (though mostly on animals). Brains suggested they dress it all up with ritual, so they constructed chants, in Dwarven, to do with health, long life, and rebirth. And included special, Dwarven, stout beer. He was rather embarrassed that they insisted he lead the ceremony.
Everything went well, though Dora only revived after being fed the beer. She said she was in excellent health, and all the waved medical instruments agreed with her. Being only 5'2" her height hadn't changed, nor her overall appearance, though a few tests showed she was considerably stronger. And, she hadn't been weak, before.
James parents talked it over with him, and agreed to take the risk. His father was a retired mining engineer, of similar build to James, but his wife was slimmer and taller. He was a devout Christian, and had his doubts about the ceremony, but accepted the word of "The Moradin" (the name they gave him for Brains) that it was for the handwavium, not the gods.
Again, all went well, though James mother lost three inches in height, and was skin and bones after the ceremony. She rapidly put on weight, afterwards, though she commented neither would her old clothes fit her, nor her friends recognise her. Both of them had shed years of age, and now were firmly mature, rather than elderly.
Jesse Kaden wanted to have something to do. His wife looked so different that she didn't have any legal existence, any more. Healthy members of 'Moria Mining' wanted to take the biomod. Eventually, one of them did, but without the ceremony. Brains and the others reluctantly completed things when he fell into a coma, and he revived, having lost six inches in height and wanting to get back to work.
All the tests that they could do showed the biomods to be stable. Dora and Jesse had a full range of tests, some on the National Health, some paid for. Though, the doctors wanted to know why Jesse looked so healthy, and didn't think his 'foreign holiday' sun-tan was a good enough excuse.
Questions were being asked about James mother, though she could talk to her friends on the phone, as long as she was careful about her new deeper voice. Brains showed them maps of the Moon, and the idea of creating a new home, and mining, to fuel workshops, somewhere on the Far Side was attractive to most of the 'Morians', as they were now calling themselves.
Eventually a dozen people went up, via Brains invisible spaceship. This included three children, though a marriage and a long-term partnership broke-up in the process. Partly balanced by a new (Morian) marriage before leaving. Another half-dozen joined them later. It was agreed that the rebirth ceremony would only be offered to children when they reached the age of eighteen. As became obvious, after a little more than nine months, the biomod bred true, between a pair of Morians, anyway.
So were established the (initially secret) Mines of Moria.
Spring 2009, Luna
Things went pretty well, to start with. There was plenty of work to keep everyone busy. Brains tried to help, but the Morians wanted to do most of it themselves, and pointed out Brains was supposed to be working on his own home. He ended up mostly providing advice, and the odd bit of technical assistance; Uran ended up with a six-month ban, for having played one too many pranks.
As things started to settle down, and there was a bit of time at the end of the working day to reflect, grumbles began to be heard. Yes, they were all in this together. Yes, they were happy to be working, making, stuff as something other than a hobby. But, they were in Space, on the Moon, for the gods sake! And, they were stuck in a hole in the ground.
A community meeting was agreed, when it was sensible to take a break from the schedule. The living quarters were usable, the mines were started, the access tunnels fully concealed, and they'd have to be really unlucky to be discovered. Brains had promised them a few extra wrinkles, to hide them even better, when they were properly established.
At the meeting it became quite clear they were both going to have to expand, and split-up. The community needed more people, probably several dozen in the long run, and while Brains had offered to help them with AIs, they didn't want to walk that path. Some of them wanted to see a lot more of the Solar System, which arguably fitted with 'Moria Mining' needing a lot more resources.
Careful advert design, intended to attract both young and old, miners, engineers and craftsmen. "Excellent health benefits"; one or two of them laughed hollowly at that. With luck they could net a doctor, and a nurse, maybe another couple of teachers.
They might end up with more than two groups, for example Moon Miners, Air Miners, and Traders. But, that was for the future. It would also be wise to make agreements with anyone with similar... culture, elsewhere in the Solar System. Possibly exchange students? There was almost certainly enough work for all of them.
Brains would help them with ship designs. Some Morians were worried they were building too big a debt with him. Even though he was an honorary member of the community. The more philosophical persuaded others that these things have a way of working themselves out.
And, hopefully no one would get too badly hurt in the process.
Also see Moria CHONics.
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