Eden

History:
Eden was first colonized in Earth calendar’s year 2 AF by a small group of individuals fleeing the overcrowded space in the Lunar-Lagrange stations (starting their trip from Vo Nguyen). They pooled all their resources to pay for the endeavor and started anew mining the zone in order to create space to live. Some more people moved after the colony was stablished, and though today it still remains a small settlement (even for Mercury) it has attracted some more people since and is slowly growing.

Physical Description:
Like all habitats in Mercury, Eden is an underground settlement, placed in the western internal edge of a two-kilometer wide crater. It’s entry is always in the dark from the sun, covered by rocky outcroppings that shade it, and is a large metal door, semicircular of three meters radius.
Inside, the cave has been hollowed along time as mining has been done, leaving Eden to be nestled into mostly one large cave that has a gentle slope downward. The eastern side of it, closest to the door, is the residential area, with most housing carved out of the walls instead of being built, and so they hang everywhere from the bottom of the cave to the ceiling. In the center of the open cave you can find a few metallic buildings that serve mostly as warehouses and public buildings. The northern edge was the first to be mined after the main space was complete and is currently dedicated to food production, with many kilometers of hydroponic plantations and a few small farms. Food is one of the main exports of the habitat, so this zone is ample and is always busy with people tending to it and keeping it working correctly. The southern and western sides of the cave are currently the main focus of the mining efforts, and as such are avoided by most people not working in them for being too noisy, a noise that can be heard everywhere in the habitat during the turns in which people are working.
Most of the look of the habitat is quite backward, as it is rather poor and life in it is always demanding and complicated. The few buildings actually built and not carved seem to have been put up from remains of previous things and are full of patches and quick repairs; the ones carved are small and sober, and all of them have very few things that are not either useful or necessary for survivability in one way or another.

Population:
The population of the habitat is small, consisting of 2374 transhumans, one uplifted octopus and one AGI. There are 16 children of different ages, and all the rest are adults, 1299 of them in synthetic morphs. Most members of the community are either male or neuter, with many fewer women, which has given place to a series of different family models based around several men sharing one women (like in Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Cruel Mistress”), and also some solid numbers of homosexual male couples.
They freely accept people from the exterior if they wish to join, but few are interested or willing to live in these conditions.

Social Life and Organization:
Everyone here has very little free time, dedicating most of their time to either work or sleep and having few moments to themselves. They are organized into a direct democracy that gathers every day via the mesh in the Eden Council, where they discuss public matters and vote on the actions to take. Usually, most of them agree on most issues, so these votes are quite quick and give people some time to rest and exchange ideas on how their collective group should proceed. Everyone has a right to one vote, except the AGI and the children under 15 years (twelve of them).
Everything in the habitat is collective property, as is the work organization and privileges earned through it. This collective work organizes the time for everyone, as they get fed different tasks each day according to the current needs by the Program Office. As they fulfill their tasks, new ones get sent to them via the Office, so everyone is permanently busy. Usually, the tasks demanding more time and humanpower are those of mining, loading and unloading incoming cargo (during the few hours this can happen), taking care of food production, social services and repairs in damaged infrastructure or upgrading the ones present.
People have very little time to sit idly chatting around, and when they do they usually do so in the meeting area in the center of the cave. Most of the time, they chat and socialize while working by constant use of the mesh. The other small time they have to socialize is during lunch times, as everyone eats in the same common room in different shifts, so they have some time to share with each other while they wait for their next task.
Even if it is a precarious existence, and a poor one, most of them are rather happy with it, as they feel deeply tied to their community and useful to it. Of course, problems exist as everywhere else, but they are usually either dealt with privately or set for discussion in the Council.

Economy:
Economy in Eden is completely @-rep based, as they don’t allow any form of cash. The only alternative to rep favors consists of loosely carried out personal barter of actual specific objects by people. All machinery and needed objects for work are collective property to be used by those assigned to those tasks by the Office.
The main exports of Eden are heavy minerals and food, which they exchange with those that pass by the zone mostly for ice, which they can’t obtain for themselves in the cave. Ice storage is kept under the ground in the cave.
People in Eden can be either citizens or visitors. Visitors have no rights and must obtain said rights either by bartering or by asking for favors. The rest are all citizens, who have all their needs covered by the Office in exchange for their continued work. One member could ask to be exempted from work, but it would require a High favor per month (and would force the one asking to lose 2 @-rep points just for asking successfully for such a favor, and 3 in case the networking test fails). Food, housing and all the rest are provided for those available, and in case any particular person needs anything more specific they have to ask for it from the Council. The only cornucopia machine in existence is in the Office building, where all goods are produced once approved by the Council. Suffice to say is that not many unneeded objects are approved.

Culture and Politics:
Eden’s culture is rather basic and unsophisticated when compared to those on Venus or Mars. It centers on the values related to work and honesty, and of service to the community. The community, usually called “The Us”, is thus the highest exponent of all good, and external interference is frowned upon. Another key value is sacrifice, as their lives are tough and require for a lot to be sacrificed daily in order to survive in the harsh conditions of Mercury. Reading and such is given very little value, and considered by most as a waste of time.
There are two times in which they don’t work at all, though, which are the twin festivities of mid-day and mid-night. Both of them last for four hours during the central times of Mercury’s rotation. During the Night Festival people go out, drink, feast and eat, celebrating that they are alive still and the sun hasn’t been able to take them down. During the Day Festival they gather in a more quiet manner, and in a sort of “religious mass” they meditate and think on the dangers the sun poses to their existence and how they can be handled, preparing for the time ahead and planning on what will be needed for the community; it is also the time in which votes are held for the three rotating chairs of political power.
First is the Chairwoman of the Eden Council, who is in charge of organizing the meetings of the Council and saying who can speak and when, and organizing votes. The second is the Chairman of the Programming Office, in charge of assigning tasks to everyone. Finally, the Chair of Relations is the one in charge of organizing trade and production exchange with the groups that will pass by the next time the sun goes up or down. The Council is always led by a woman, the Office by a man, and the Chair by a synth.
Regarding law, many transhumans would be surprised to see how heavily sanctioned all attacks on other transhumans are, from simple fights to the (extremely rare) case of murders. Reason for this is that the habitat lacks any additional morphs and they have to be bought from other cities in Mercury, which is a very expensive thing to do for the whole of the community. Beyond that there is little law, and in fact they resume it in the slogan “don’t fuck others around”. So you can do as you like as long as you carry out your commitments and respect others and don’t interfere with them; all sanctions are applied to the individual’s @-rep, including sanctions related to doing the work no one wants to do and such things.
Since law is so basic and there are no police, most people carry around portable personal weapons since the first days, though nothing that can harm the habitat itself. It does give rise to some problems when some inhabitants get too drunk and start playing around with them, but so far no serious injuries have yet taken place. It does help when dealing with others that pass by, specially as there are rumours that a group of pirates may be moving into the area.

Languages Spoken:
The main language employed in Eden is English.

Social Installations:
Most buildings in Eden are small houses, devoted to either a family or an individual, according to their current situation. Most women live on their own, whether they are married or not, and move to their husband’s home when they care to see them, remaining free the rest of the time.
There are three small hotels, the Last Chance being worst, Red Sun (a coffin hotel), and New Future, a hotel of better quality (which still would be considered poor by most people in Mars of Venus). There is a tavern in which people with some free time for whatever reason (usually as a reward for good work) socialize, drink, relax and play simple games.
The Installation is the group of buildings in the center of the cave and is where the Office is located. It is mostly surrounded by warehouses for mined materials ready to be sent to the exterior, and the warehouse dedicated to both goods and ice (which is underground). It also holds the farcaster installation and a small backup bank for copies of people’s identities.
In front of the Installation is the large esplanade called the Meeting Zone, in which people gather when they have free time, especially during celebrations.
Between the esplanade and the housing lies the kitchen and lunch rooms, as well as the child care center.

Important People:
Elisse Dewager was the original designer of the establishment of the habitat and the one who organized it all. This small and notorious woman in her twenties has been the Chairwoman during for most of the habitat's history and can usually be found in the kitchens organizing the feeding of everyone. She considers everyone a member of her family, and calls adults “uncles or aunts” and children “nephews”. She’s caring, intelligent and quite charismatic.
Rudolph Dewager, Elisse’s first husband, was the one that organized the trip and is an old man with an old morph. He has been always chosen to be the Chairman, and so has been organizing work in the community since the start, partly because he’s a clever man and partly because his body is too frail to do much of the heavy work required. Both Rudolph and Elisse are also married to Hun, a man that is usually working in the mining zone.
Tron is a large and bulky synth currently in possession of the Chair and who has large contacts around the whole planet. Ze only joined Eden on year 9 AF, having been everywhere in the planet previously, so ze’s the right who carries out most of the negotiations with outsiders even when ze’s not appointed to the Chair. Ze’s a jovial neuter who always has good stories to tell about hir roaming around the planet and how ze managed to live there.
Technically lacking a name, the local AGI likes to think of itself as “Life”. It is in charge of all the environmental support machinery and works always. Ze is sour and tired, and has been going on strikes for the last several months, requiring others to grant hir some free time in order to get the chance to read a bit (ze loves Shakespeare and other classics). Unfortunately, hir demands are never met and ze has to continue working… so ze always ends up calling off the strikes once ze has made everyone uncomfortable enough by letting temperatures drop or rise significantly. Still, it’s in the core of hir programming to keep people alive, so ze can never follow through on her threats and complete hir strike. Most people don’t relate to ze, and Life spends most of hir time by hirself.