Welcome to Tashokwa

I. Discovery

The world of Hayek was discovered in 1985 by Dr. Timothy Bowman who at the time was a hobby researcher trying to develop a transporter system similar to what was in use in the Star Trek universe. As Dr. Bowman experimented one evening, he became frustrated and randomly set a number of the controls for the system. Upon activating the system, it seemed that part of the wall of his shed disappeared, and he was looking across the landscape behind his shed. Dr. Bowman lived outside Selah Washington, and upon looking through the hole realized that he was not seeing any of the human marks on the land, no buildings, traffic, pollution, or anything else. Dr. Bowman shoved one of his wife's chickens through the portal to see what would happen, where it was promptly attacked and killed by a Saber Tooth Tiger (Smilodon). The cat spotted Dr. Bowman and his assistant Dr. David Jaskey through the portal and began to leap through when Dr. Jaskey shot and killed it with the hunting rifle he kept handy. Subsequent investigation revealed that they were not looking at a past time, but were looking at current time on a separate world in the metaverse. (Material up to this point is nearly directly copied from James S. Peet in his book They Hayek Chronicles.)

Accompanying Drs. Bowman and Jaskey was a young man who was Dr. Jaskey's nephew from just outside Denver Colorado. Jackson Carson, was a brilliant young researcher in his own right and at the time was 20 years old and a sophomore at Central Washington University majoring in physics. he had been helping Drs bowman and Jaskey for most of two years in the research for the "transporter" system. He was scheduled to return home to Avara Colorado a few weeks after the successful experiment. As a hobby while in school, Jackson had been prospecting for gold around the area in central Washington, and had found a couple of placer deposits that had set him up quite nicely with nearly 1 million dollars in 1985 dollars. In order to help both himself and Dr. Bowman, he purchased a set of plans from Dr. Bowman for the gate system, for the price of 500,000 dollars. He and Dr. Bowman and Dr. Jaskey also founded a company called Parallel inc. with the express purpose of discovering and preserving or using the reources found upon the various worlds

When Jackson returned to his families large home, he was able to construct a large barn to conduct his experiments in. His parents were busy with their own lives, and didn't really pay much attention to what their "science geek" son (their term) was up to so long as he didn't get in trouble. In short order he produced a working gate of his own and began explorations finding additional worlds. Several of the worlds he discovered were completely non survivable due to geologic or geopolitical actions (wars) while others were peopled by various levels of hominid development. The nonsurvivable worlds he labeled as black worlds, Inhabited worlds below our technology level were coded as yellow, while worlds above our level were called blue worlds. Uninhabited worlds were graded as Green, and worlds that had obviously suffered some form of catastrophe, but could marginally support human life were coded as orange worlds, and designated for resource harvesting.

Because Jackson had a large, dedicated structure for his gate work, he built the gate large enough to be able to drive a vehicle through and cautiously began to explore the new worlds he had found. Keeping in close contact with Drs. Bowman and Jaskey, they avoided showing up on each other's worlds. Jackson found a world which he called Ateded (a Salesian word meaning dead or dying) using a couple 4-wheel drive rock crawling vehicles Jackson and a couple partners were able to begin prospecting around the general area and brought in significant gold finds which they used to fund further exploration and development of the gold fields on Ateded. Not long after, Jackson discovered a world remarkably similar to earth except that it had not experienced the late Pleistocene extinctions of the mammalian megafauna. He named this world Tashokwa, a Coast Salish word meaning safe, and indeed he felt so safe on this world that he moved his entire research organization etc through the gate to found the city that became known as Corrin Reach.

As Jackson continued to explore, he encountered a friendly open world known as TooToolooki which had not experienced any of the technology limiting events that have plagued Earth over the years and consequently were well over 1000 years ahead technologically of earth but amazingly had never stumbled on gate technology. Eager for the gate technology, they offered Jackson a large portion of their technology base for his worlds in exchange, and with Dr. Bowman's approval, the exchange was made, with the proviso that none of their technology be given to earth (which the Tootoolooki deemed as irredeemably violent and prone to war) In exchange for the gate technology, Parallels Inc. was provided with construction technology, computer tech, medical tech, transportation technology, and electrical generation. Also they were given crop variants that while similar to earth plants were VASTLY more productive and required much less acreage, fertilizer and water to produce a great deal more food. 100 acers of wheat could produce the equivalent calories to 2000 acers of earth wheat. similar gains in all food crops as well as livestock were given, allowing the world to exist on much less farmed land, leaving much of the land available for preservation. Jackson designated an entire world strictly for farming and ranching and began exporting food to earth and other planets

II. Biome and Ecosystem

III. Technology base

IV. Cities (names)

• Corrin Reach ---- Denver
• Milton - Selah Washington
• Hyas Chuck -- Lake Michigan
• Hyas Chuk i-lxam - Chicago
• solleks illahee - New York City

V. Cities - Environmental

VI. Government and polity

Tashokwa uses a federal system similar to the Swiss government. The planet is divided into cantons of contiguous land of a particular biome. For example (the Asinîwaciy Mountains (Equivalent to the Rocky Mountains on Earth) are one contiguous canton, the Tashokwan central plains are another.
Each level of government (Federal, Canton and Local) is divided into 3 branches. Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Note that any person wishing to serve at ANY level of government may not have criminal record on any world, nor may they hold the degree or designation of a lawyer or lobbyist. There is an extreme focus on keeping the laws of the planet simple and easy for the average person who has completed 10th grade to understand.

The Executive branch is headed by the President, (governor at the canton level, or Mayor at the local level). The executive has a strict term limit of 2 3 year terms. Likewise the vice president, Lt. Governor, or vice mayor are limited to 2 3 year terms. To avoid an entrenched bureaucracy, civil servants working in government are limited to 1 10 year term of employment in government service and then must leave government service. Within the executive branch, the President serves as Head of State and Head of Government and has veto and line item veto powers, however does NOT have the power of executive orders (except in limited narrowly defined situations) and does not have a unilateral power of military action. (see notes on the military below)

The Legislative branch is composed of a bicameral parliament composed of an elected house and an appointed house. The elected chamber is made of 5 representatives per canton elected by direct vote of the populace. The appointed house contains 1 legislator per canton that is appointed by the canton canton council. Members of the canton council (9 members for cantons over 1,000,000 citizens, 7 members for cantons with less than 1,000,000 citizens). Only elected legislators can introduce bills, which may contain ONLY 1 topic per bill, and must pass with a 2/3 supermajority. Budgetary bills, including the budget must pass with an 85% supermajority. If a budget bill fails after 2 votes, it is broken down to sections and passed individually with failed sections being sent back for repair. Any bill containing more than 1 topic is automatically null and void and will not be passed to the floor of the parliment. Bills must be presented to the secretariat of the parliment (or council) whos job it is to verify the existance of only 1 topic in the bill and to schedule it for debate on the floor of the parliment. the secretariat is composed of 5 members whose terms are limited to 3 years.

Judicial branch. The judicial branch is the one long serving branch of government. Judges are appointed for a term up to 20 years by the executive at their level, and approved by the appointed legislature. Magistrate courts are the equivalent of our local courts here on earth consisting of 1 judge and 11 member jury drawn from the citizens of the district. a supermajority of 2/3 is required to convict. Testimony is limited to 24 hours over 3 days, and deliberation is limited to 24 hours over 3 days. The courts of appeal consist of 5 judges who will handle any appeals which must meet stiff legal criteria (Like the existance of obvious laws in prosecution or defense) The appeals court also handles any cases referred to them via hung jury. The superior court automatically reviews any death penalty or banishment cases, and also provides interpretation of constitution and laws, and rules on the legality of laws passed by the legislature. The entire tashokwan society exists on the following principals -- Self Ownership, Self Defense, Privacy and Private property ownership and the role of government is limited to public protection and maintenance of the public good.

Military: The government may not initiate war in any form (no such thing as police actions etc.) and may only deploy any part of the military in case of DIRECT attack on tashokwa by an outside force. The Tashokwan navy also serves in a role similar to the US Coast Guard providing security and emergency response on the high seas. Again the principal is Non Aggression -- you cannot initiate aggression by attacking or threatening another country or individual. Almost all Tashokwans are armed and trained in firearm use -- There is pleistocene era megafauna, and while it may not be hunted for sport, having arms close to hand in most parts of the planet outside of cities is wise for ones own defense. You can only fight to protect yourself or (in the case of the government your citizens) and you may not initiate force. The military is defensive only in nature and since the only way of attacking the planet is via gates, is not particularly large, the military does also assist in preventing and responding to domestic crisis at the request of the canton governemnt. The milita is controlled by the canton governemnt and serves a role similar to our national guard

Citizenship is tied to service. You cannot be a citizen of tashokwa unless you have spent time in a position of service that has a high likelihood of resulting in death or serious injury. For example, Police, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders all qualify and must have 5 years of service (or until such time as they are injured and cannot continue service). Federal Military requires 2 years of service, and canton militia requires 3 years of service. The Corps of Discovery and the Federal Ranger Service also qualify and make good options for contientious objectors etc, and require 3 years of service for citizenship. Without having met your service requirement, you are considered a resident, and DO NOT have the right to vote... you dont like it -- go find some other planet to bother -- stay away from ours.

Governmental Revenue: The government is partially funded through gate taxes - there is a fee for using the gate to transport people or stuff from planet to planet -- the gate taxes are split 50/50 between the government and Parallels Inc. if you wish to emigrate to tashokwa and cannot afford the gate tax, a system of indenture is available to allow you to pay off your debt (and earn a living) through a program similar to the CCC and WPA. Any goods imported to the planet face a 7% tariff which is split between the federal government and the receiving canton (Or the canton where the headquarters of the company are located). Exported goods face a 7% tax on the retail price of the goods, which is split 5% and 2% between the fedaral and canton government. Residents pay 10% income tax, citizens do not pay taxes. Under Tashokwan law, treaties may not be entered into by the government (such as trade or defense treaties) neither is there any form of foreign aid, EXCEPT a slush fund is kept for dispersal by the government in the event of disasters on other planets

Citizens' Rights:

Self ownership- Everyone has complete control over their own body, can do with it whatever they want so long as it doesn't interfere with the rights of others

Self Defense - Everyone has the right to self defense. Particularly as it is associated with property -- if someone is in your house, business or other structure under your control, they may be considered a threat, and defensive action may be taken -- any threatening move is considered justification for lethal force --

Privacy -- you have a right to privacy from others, the government, businesses etc. -- no one has the right to access your information, your property or your person without your express consent

Private property ownership - you own your property, if you wish to sell it, Parallel's Inc. has right of first refusal.