The principal center of human activity in the Valdis System is, paradoxically, nowhere near the various worldlets and asteroids in the system's planetary plane but at the star's Zenith JumpPoint. Wheel began as a system recharge station, a permanent deep space facility at the system's JumpPoint, with fusion reactors and a large energy collection sail to recharge the Kearny-Fuchida drives of in-system JumpShips. Because of the inhospitality of the various worlds of the system, and because of the relative local abundance of raw materials, the Zenith station grew to become the principal habitation center for the system, providing homes, recreation, and services for the miners and corporate executives assigned there.
Design
Wheel takes its name from its design--a vast wheel with a diameter of 460 meters, rotating once every 1.97 minutes to provide artificial gravity in the wheel's rim. "Down" is "out," while "up" is in the direction of the wheel's hub no matter where on the rim you are. Centrifugal force generated by the wheel's rotation creates one standard gravity.
All of Wheel's living quarters and offices are located in the rim, as are most of the recreational facilities. Rim capsules provide the chief means of transport here. These are sealed, 25-seat passenger capsules riding tracks along the rim's edge. Like monorails or tubetrains on or under planetary surfaces, these serve to carry Wheel's inhabitants at high speedfrom pointto point along the rim.
Wheel's rim is connected to the hub by two spokes, each containing ladders and pods identical to the Rim capsules save that they cross Wheel by travelling the facility's diameter instead of its circumference. The spokes are attached to Wheel's Hub Spin Module which rotates independently of the rest of the hub. As in all such rotational facilities, weightless conditions prevail within the hub.
The docking bays include both true bays which open to admit shuttles, then close, allowing the bay to be pressurized and the crews to debark in atmosphere, and also a long docking spine to which DropShips can be locked. JumpShips can be moored to the docking spine, but because of their size and relatively fragile design, they generally are connected only by the power cables which feed power from the station generators to the ship's storage cells.
Station Keepers
Like all JumpPoint recharging stations, Wheel does not orbit the local sun but must rely on station-keeping thrusters to maintain its position in the system--in Wheel's case, 523 million kilometers "above" the north pole of Valdis.
Wheel's station keepers transform hydrogen into high-temperature plasma and expel it at relativistic speeds by way of a plasma linear accelerator (PLA) which forms the spine of the lower hub. The acceleration is very small-less than .01 G-but it is sufficient to counteract the gravitational attraction of the Valdean sun at a distance of over 3.5 a.u.
Aboard Wheel, the hub is in zero-G, or, more properly, micro-G. The facility's station-keeping thrust provides a small but measurable acceleration which mimics gravity, with "down" in the direction of the energy sails and the Valdean sun, and "up" towards the station docking bays. In the rim, of course, the far greater effects of the centrifugally-generated artificial gravity overwhelm the effects of the station-keeping acceleration, which is not felt at all.
GENERAL NOTES
The Valdis System has been fought over many times in past centuries, and it is likely that it will continue to be a center of struggle in the ongoing contest between House Kurita and House Steiner, Wheel was taken from Steiner some 75 years ago, and the system is still regarded by Commonwealth strategists as occupied territory.
While Steiner forces have repeatedly raided the Valdis system, however, they have been careful to stay well clear of Wheel itself. Wheel is quite literally irreplaceable, since many of the techniques employed in its construction have been lost during centuries of continual warfare. Major damage to the station-keeping thrusters, for example, or to the massive fusion drive which powers them, would result in disaster as the Wheel slowly--but inexorably--fell into the system's sun.
A second consideration is the presence of a ComStar class B hyperpulse generator on Wheel. Neither House Steiner or House Kurita would wish to instigate a battle which could result in the destruction of a ComStar facility-with the attendant threat of ComStar imposing punitive measures on the combatants.
As a result, Wheel itself has achieved something of a neutral status. Free traders and merchant ships have called freely at Wheel for many years. Under the shelter of a general unwritten and unspoken agreement, even Lyran Commonwealth nationals havevisited Wheel andfreely conducted their business there--usually trading agreements with Kurita merchant firms--although Steiner warships know better than to test this de facto neutrality. Because of this, Wheel has become a port similar to, if not as active as, the Lyran Port Moseby. Like Port Moseby, Wheel provides both an avenue for Kurita merchants who seek goods from beyond the borders of the Combine and an outlet for those of their own products which interest visiting Lyran traders. Local Kurita government representatives seek, with varying levels of success, to limit the exposure of Kurita nationals with "foreigners" to encounters with high-ranking officers and trade representatives.
Other targets in the Valdis System are fair game, however. Numerous raids have been staged against titanium storage yards on the surface of Valdis I by DropShips making high-G runs from the Valdean Nadir JumpPoint.
BattleMech operations on the surface of Valdis I are particularly difficult. Mech combat in low-G vacuum environments is markedly different from operations on more Earthlike worlds and is both extremely diff icult and extremely dangerous (see: BattleMech Combat in Vacuum on page 51). Operations on Valdis I must be timed to coincide with the approximately 4-hourlong periods at dawn and dusk when the surface is neither too hot nor too cold for 'Mech systems.
In August, 3027, a Lyran Commonwealth raiding force consisting of two Union-class DropShips broke out of JumpSpace at the Nadir JumpPoint and commenced a high-G run towards Valdis I. Brushing past local defenses, the DropShips grounded on a broad lava plain five kilometers east of Port Red approximately one hour past local sunrise. One company of mercenary BattleMechs--their identity has been withheld thus far for security reasons--disembarked and advanced on the facility.
They were met by four Kurita 'Mechs standing sentry-go at the facility. The defenders put up a spirited defense, so spirited, in fact, that the attack was delayed for almost two hours, as the rising sun became dangerously hot. Space-suited infantry elements were able to secure a small quantity of aluminum ingots and store it aboard one of the DropShips. With Kurita reinforcements approaching, the raiders re-embarked and escaped, leaving one of their number--his 'Mech damaged--behind as prisoner. It was suggested that the operation would have been completely successful if the attackers had had more time. However, the rising temperature on the planet's surface precluded further operations and forced their retreat.
One of the Steiner DropShips was badly damaged by local militia fighters during the run back to the Nadir Point.
Currently, rumors abound on Rastaban, Biota, and other Steiner worlds near Wheel, rumors of a forthcoming major Steiner offensive which will include Wheel in its sweep. Certainly, House Steiner intelligence services have been particularly interested lately in this valuable and guarded world on the frontier of Kurita space.
Perhaps the Commonwealth high command is planning a return to Wheel in the very near future. Only time will tell.
ABOUT WORLDBOOK
Worldbook is a BattleTechnology feature drawn from the computer files of The Navigator's Guide to the Inner Sphere, the 32-volume compendium of explored worlds published by ComStar Press Interstellar, Terra. Wheel was first printed in Volume 6, Cis-Antares Sector, and is used here by permission of the publisher.
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