Jaques Station: The case for return or dismantlement.
As everyone in the civilized parts of the galaxy knows by now, Jaques station, lost on an intended course for the far reaches of the Galaxy, has now been found twenty two thousand light years away from Sol. As we speak, it is the target of concentrated efforts to repair its dysfunctional systems. While what happens next is yet unclear, a fever has already started. The age old human instinct of land grab and colonisation has resurfaced, and it is likely that political pressure will soon be made in that direction. In an era where we pride ourselves to have become an enlightened sentient species however, falling back to our baser instincts would be not only an environmental tragedy but also social cowardice.
The environmental case is crystal clear, we simply choose to close our eyes and ignore it. Jaques Station resides in a pristine part of the galaxy, where various forms of life may reside. Our presence there cannot but upset the precarious chemical equilibriums that led to its existence, and that may, in time, lead it to evolve into sentience. Already, attracted to the place by the Station's presence, independent pilots have taken to themselves to start what can only be called "cowboy terraforming", dumping hundreds of tons of waste and chemicals onto nearby planets in the faint hope that such littering would encourage a more human-friendly development of those planet's potential biospheres.
This is only the start of such behaviour, and it is still at an individual scale whose damage may, hopefully, be negligible. But a colonisation policy in the area would be a terminal death sentence for the unfortunate life forms whose only sin is to have been born in a place that humans ended up liking. A place that will soon be transformed into a piece of real estate to be used itself as another launchpad to spread the contamination that our species could soon become. An estimated four billion years ago, life appeared on Earth, slowly evolving over ages to result into the myriad of beautiful species us humans are a part of. We should be grateful no sentient species decided in that day and age to litter our cradle to turn it as their latest playground, wiping us in the process. And we should be keen to repay that courtesy.
Sadly, our record in such matters is appalling. The shocking treatment we're inflicting to the organic and potentially sentient 'Barnacles', 'Unknown Probes' and 'Unknown Artifacts' says it all. We are capturing them, selling them, destroying them, in the name of science, profit and convenience, with a convenient disregard as to the ethical matters surrounding life and sentience. And if anything, the Jaques Station debacle has caused a spike in the 'harvesting' and trade of meta-alloys from Barnacles. Simply because we can. Should a technologically superior alien species discover than human hears are a conveient power source and start 'harvesting' them because they can, how would we take it? There is no excuse for our treatment of alien life, and Jaques Station not only caused a spike in that mistreatment, but now threatens to encourage systematic long-term genocide through terraforming.
A case is being made that distant colonisation is required for deeper exploration of the galaxy. A case that should be immediately dismissed as a laughable fallacy when some of the furthest landmarks in the galaxy such as Beagle Point are already reachable in forty eight hours. The galaxy is already in our reach. While remote outposts may present some convenience, this should not overcome the ethical drive to respect the natural wonders we're a part of. Should cutting down on a day's travel really justify the potential genocide that we call terraforming?
Another case being made is that of resources. Yet, no resource has yet been found in the area that we can not find closer to home, in the reaches of space that we have already made ours. Everything we need is readily available in and around the "human bubble", and shippable to any system in an hour's time at worst, thanks to the wonders of frame-shift technology. In such circumstances, going out of our way to pilfer the same resources for another place is nothing but a preventive land grab. Here is a place that 'could' become worth something, hence an economic case to make a claim of it, just in case. But that claim won't stop here. It will grow. As empty and useless to our society as a place can be, we will encourage it to be claimed as property in a mad rush to own what we have no actual need for.
The need. Another case of need is being made. The need for more space, more places to live in. And this is where social cowardice strikes us. A case is being made to leave civilisation behind. For another distant place, to start again, better. To be isolated from the local political and social troubles. How many times has mankind done this? Pre-space Earth was already doing it. Starfaring mankind has done the same. To what results? The dark side of human society have systematically carried over. War, exploitation, social injustice... The belief that a society will grow to be fundamentally different to that which can be found in the 'bubble' because it takes about a day to travel to it is a delusion. Because Jaques Station is indeed laughably close to the rest of mankind in a frame-shift enabled civilisation. Crossing Earth's oceans took longer to pre-space pioneers than it takes today to reach the Eol Prou sector. Yet the belief is there that the 'bubble' influence won't reach it. And even is that influence wasn't there, the colonists wouldn't come from nowhere. They'd come from that very same bubble, with their hopes, their dreams, and their dark side. Criminality is already a thing around Jaques, bounty hunting a flourishing activity.
It is likely therefore that any new bubble of civilisation will mimick the old one. The dream of starting over isn't new, but it is high time mankind accepted it as just that, a dream. Running away from the mess we've made will never be the solution to our society's illness. This is, in fact, the best way to ensure our stagnation. We live in an era of unparalleled access to resources, where scarcity should be a thing of the past. Our territorial claim, the 'bubble', is already larger than our needs, and accomodates vastly different worlds and governments. Let's not give up on all that. It will take effort, more than running away, but in time, we can make it work. And without the ethical and environmental cost of distant colonisation.
In the end, the ethical way forward is clear. While presenting no benefit to exploration that holds to scrutiny, by its very presence, Jaques Station is already acting as a hub for some of the most toxic human behaviours such as murder, xeno-exploitation and ecological negligence. Not only should colonisation be prevented at all costs, Jaques Station should be removed from the area. With luck, the current effort may allow it to be returned safely to our bubble of space. If that were not to become a possibility, then the plans should be drafted for an orderly evacuation of its citizens before we drift it into the local star, to remove as much of our taint before it's too late.
