Kibou-daini was a technologically and culturally advanced planet, settled by people from Earth, which was being terraformed from its ice-age like environment at the time of Cryoburn. The planet's English name was New Hope II, while its Japanese name was Kibou-daini, which translates to "Hope-Number Two".
Astrography[]
The planet's nearest wormhole led to Escobar via a "shortish multi-jump route." There do not appear to have been any other routes; it may have been a cul-de-sac.[1]
A journey between Barrayar and Kibou-daini took three weeks.[2]
Climate[]
Kibou-daini had an Ice Age climate, with retreating glaciers. The only life native to the planet was microbes, found primarily near the equator - these were probably the source of breathable levels of oxygen in the atmosphere. Terraforming took the form of putting in Earth plants to grow and fill the spaces as the glaciers retreated. This process had not yet reached halfway to the north and south poles of the planet.[2]
There were few animals on the planet; all were of Earth origin. These included spiders, moths, falcons, cats, turtles, rats, and chickens.[3]
Glacier-diving was a dangerous but popular sport.[4]
Culture[]
The planetary capital was Northbridge/Kitahashi.
While the planet's official designation was New Hope II, it was often referred to as Kibou-daini to distinguish it from the two other planets and a transfer station that also bore that name in the Nexus.[2]
Many of its earliest settlers appear to have been from Japan, leading to most places on the planet having Japanese names, with Buddhist rituals for the dead common on the planet. These places, as well as the planet itself, generally ended up having two names—a Japanese name and an English name.
One of the planet's unusual cultural practices was to cryogenically freeze most people either just after they died, or even before they were expected to die (which killed them), with the plan to revive them when whatever ailments were going to cause/did cause their death could be cured. On other planets, cryogenic freezing existed primarily as a short-term emergency measure to preserve already dead bodies until such time as they could be healed of their injuries. On Kibou-daini, many more people were frozen than unfrozen, resulting in millions of cryogenically frozen people located either in underground cryocombs, or in enormous, luxurious buildings housing them in their own city of the dead (officially named Western Hope, but also called the Cryopolis. It was adjacent to Northbridge and had a similar total "population"). As planetary law gave the cryogenics companies the right to vote in the place of those frozen, and to control their assets, the companies gradually gained political and economic control of the planet.[4]
An underclass of revived people existed, consisting largely of elderly people who had not made enough financial provisions to stay frozen until the cure for aging could be discovered, and who lacked the skills or support system to flourish hundreds of years after they last lived. Ironically, living people who were injured could end up receiving sub-standard medical care if they lacked a cryonics contract, as there was not much long-term value in saving them, while each frozen body represented an important asset for the cyronics conglomerates.
The monetary unit was the nuyen (new-yen).
Politics[]
Kibou-daini's government was approximately democratic; however, extremely large blocs of votes were controlled by a small number of cryocorps.[5] Speech was reasonably free[6], but if a person or group threatened a cryocorp too much, they might find themselves cryopreserved until a treatment could be found for their mental illness.[5]
Employees of the cryocorps generally signed waivers allowing fast-penta to be used in the case of any investigation.[7]
The equivalent of State's Evidence for Kibou-daini was "Prefecture's Evidence".[8]
For purpose of governance, the planet was divided into twelve Territorial Prefectures.[9]
Places in Kibou Daini[]
People from Kibou Daini[]
- Jin Sato
- Lisa Sato
- Minako Sato (Mina)
- Aida[4]
- Anish Akabane
- Ayako - baker for Susan Suzuki's collective
- Bhavya - resident of Susan Suzuki's collective[10]
- Okiya Cermak[7]
- Alice Chen - woman whose cryocorpse was put in Lisa Sato's place in NewEgypt facility[11]
- Ran Choi - chief operating officer for NewEgypt[12]
- Dan - a police officer who assisted in the apprehension of Jin Sato[13]
- Theodore Fuwa - legal owner of Susan Suzuki's cryofacility[14]
- Lee Kang - member of Lisa Sato's activist group[15]
- Rumi Khosla - member of Lisa Sato's activist group[15]
- Shirou Kim - president of NewEgypt[7]
- Dr Seiichiro Leiber
- Yuuichi Matson
- Michiko - a police officer who apprehended Jin Sato in the tube-tram[13]
- Roger Napak - R&D supervisor for Dr Leiber in NewEgypt[12]
- Hideyuki Storrs - executive vice-president of Development for WhiteChrys[4]
- George Suwabi - member of Lisa Sato's activist group[16]
- Susan Suzuki
- Vristi Tanaka
- Tenbury
- Eiko Tennoji - member of Lisa Sato's activist group[17]
- Ron Wing
- Hans Witta[7]
- Madame Xia - lawyer for the Barrayaran consulate[18]
- Yani
- Yuko - secretary to Ron Wing
- Lorna - aunt to Jin and Lisa Sato
- Hikaru - uncle to Jin and Lisa
- Tetsu - cousin to Jin and Lisa[19]
- Ken - cousin to Jin and Lisa[19]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Cryoburn chapter 8
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Cryoburn chapter 2
- ↑ Cryoburn chapters 3,8
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Cryoburn chapter 7
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cryoburn chapter 3
- ↑ Cryoburn chapter 6
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Cryoburn chapter 15
- ↑ Cryoburn chapter 19
- ↑ Cryoburn chapter 1
- ↑ Cryoburn chapter 17
- ↑ Cryoburn chapters 12,14,19
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Cryoburn chapters 15,19
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Cryoburn chapter 4
- ↑ Cryoburn chapters 16-20
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Cryoburn chapter 14
- ↑ Cryoburn chapters 9,13-16
- ↑ Cryoburn chapters 9,14-16
- ↑ Cryoburn chapters 18,19
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Cryoburn chapters 6,9