Orbitsville by Bob Shaw
Orbitsville is a fictional construct within a speculative narrative centered on future space travel, dominated by the multinational corporation Starflight. In this future, interstellar travel has been available for a century, yet Starflight maintains a monopoly by limiting the discovery of new planets for colonization, with Terranova being the only designated planet for immigration. The company's CEO, Elizabeth Lindstrom, is depicted as a powerful and cunning figure who leverages her inherited position to suppress competition and exploit new lands for profit.
The plot unfolds as Vance Garamond, the commander of a discovery ship, inadvertently becomes involved in a personal tragedy related to Lindstrom’s son, leading him to seek refuge and opportunity in Orbitsville—a spherical structure surrounding a star called Pengelly's Star. The discovery of Orbitsville offers Garamond a chance to protect his family and challenge Lindstrom's ambitions, as he strives to navigate the dangers posed by her relentless pursuit of power. As Garamond explores Orbitsville, he discovers additional openings that could disrupt Starflight's monopoly, setting the stage for a conflict that could redefine access to space and the control of new worlds. The narrative highlights themes of power, competition, and survival in a richly imagined future.
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Orbitsville
First published: 1975
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—alien civilization
Time of work: Three or four centuries in the future
Locale: Earth, the planet Sagania, and the Dyson Sphere called Orbitsville
The Plot
Starflight, the wealthiest and most powerful multinational company on Earth, holds a monopoly on space travel and transportation in the future. Although interstellar flight has been possible for a century and Starflight was created with the intent of discovering new planets for colonization, only one planet, Terranova, has been slated for immigration. Afraid of losing money to competition, the company attempts to hold onto its monopoly by preventing the discovery of other worlds. Were additional worlds to be discovered, the cheap land that would become available would cut into the massive profits Starflight derives from immigrants to Terranova, from both transportation costs and land fees. The company’s chief executive officer and president, Elizabeth Lindstrom, uses Starflight as a means of satisfying her desire for power. She is a woman intentionally reminiscent of Elizabeth I, having inherited the company, her status, and “the mind of a man” from her father.
Vance Garamond, the Starflight commander of a discovery ship, incurs Lindstrom’s wrath when her only son, Harald, accidentally dies while entrusted to Garamond’s care. Although Garamond is not responsible for the boy’s death—the child falls from the top of a statue near the palace—he understands that Lindstrom is a vicious woman who is apt to take revenge on him and possibly on his family. Gathering his wife, Aileen, and his own son, Christopher, Garamond hurries to leave Earth on the Bissendorf, his own ship.
Garamond heads his ship for a region where there may be a body named Pengelly’s Star. One of the planets nearby, Sangania, had a space-traveling society that was destroyed by a catastrophic fire that stripped the atmosphere from the planet many years before Earthlings achieved interstellar transportation. Star charts discovered on Sangania lead Garamond to Orbitsville, a spherical shell that surrounds Pengelly’s Star. The shell has a single opening that allows spacecraft within.
Although the discovery of Orbitsville makes Garamond a hero and protects him from Lindstrom for a short time, her thirst for power drives her to exploit the new land, called “Lindstromland,” in much the same fashion as she did Terranova. She continues to plot for Garamond’s demise. Fortunately for her, despite the massive size of Orbitsville, the single opening into Orbitsville can be controlled easily, creating a logjam of colonists wishing to settle on the sphere’s surface.
While managing this new, profitable enterprise, Lindstrom arranges for a saboteur to destroy the navigational equipment on the Bissendorf when Garamond is on a mission exploring the outside of the sphere. Only Garamond’s good fortune allows him to survive a direct impact with the surface of Orbitsville and return to Beachhead City in time to prevent an assassination attempt on the lives of his wife and son. His discovery of other openings to Orbitsville during his struggle to reach Beachhead City breaks Starflight’s monopoly, dissipating its power.