The Billion Year Backup System (working title)(Workshop & Comments thread)

[Rusty Edge]

This is a work of Larry Niven Fan Fiction in progress, set in his Known Space universe.

Comments welcome
[Story drafts copyright 2016-present "Rusty Edge"]
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"Truth be told, I'd rather smoke than drink," continued G-squared.

"Go ahead," I said, following his lead and changing the subject. I was both alert and relaxed, feeling the effects of the fine Irish Coffee. "How has this dangerous smoking habit endured in humanity for over a thousand years, if you don't mind my asking? It doesn't make sense that it would."

"I suppose not," he said, as he took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and touched the other end against his ring. There were some blue high voltage sparks, then the cigarette smoldered, and the tip glowed orange as he inhaled. "Actually it faded away in a couple generations."

"What?" I said, "I don't understand."

He blew a few smoke rings. "The reason smoking survived the intervening centuries," He took the cigarette out of his mouth and pointed it at me for emphasis, "was those kidnapping organ legger gangs! They terrorized the Earth. To them, a person was either a potential product or a potential black market customer, and smokers make way better customers than marketable product. The best way to advertise yourself as unfit for death and dissection was to chain smoke. Smoking made an overnight comeback. Statistically, smoking made you less likely to die young!"

I went slack jawed. "Damned if you do, and damned if you don't!"

"Eventually they bio-engineered the symbiotic organs which would replace hearts, lungs, and livers, etc. duplicating the function in exchange for what they could get from the blood supply. It put an end to the organ legger menace, but it also meant that the downsides of smoking were curable surgically. So there was no reason to quit smoking if you don't want to."

[Buster's Uncle]

I hate to see the belters left out of that, but story length concerns and all...

[Rusty Edge]

This is a work of Larry Niven Fan Fiction in progress, set in his Known Space universe.

Comments welcome
[Story drafts copyright 2016-present "Rusty Edge"]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
"Truth be told, I'd rather smoke than drink," continued G-squared.

"Go ahead," I said, following his lead and changing the subject. I was both alert and relaxed, feeling the effects of the fine Irish Coffee. "How has this dangerous smoking habit endured in humanity for over a thousand years, if you don't mind my asking? It doesn't make sense that it would."

"I suppose not," he said, as he took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and touched the other end against his ring. There were some blue high voltage sparks, then the cigarette smoldered, and the tip glowed orange as he inhaled. "Actually, it perished from the Earth in a couple generations."

"What?" I said, "I don't understand."

He blew a few smoke rings. "The reason smoking survived the intervening centuries," He took the cigarette out of his mouth and pointed it at me for emphasis, "was those kidnapping organ legger gangs! They terrorized the Earth. To them, a person was either a potential product or a potential black-market repeat customer, and smokers make way better customers than marketable product. The best way to advertise yourself as unfit for death by dissection was to chain smoke. Smoking made an overnight comeback with help from Belter smugglers. Statistically, smoking made you less likely to die young!"

I went slack jawed. "Damned if you do, and damned if you don't!"

"Eventually they bio-engineered the symbiotic organs which would replace hearts, lungs, and livers, etc. duplicating the function in exchange for what the symbionts could get from the blood supply. It put an end to the organ legger menace, but it also meant that the downsides of smoking were curable surgically. So, there was no reason to quit smoking if you didn't want to."

I changed it so that - 1) Smoking perished from the Earth (where it originated) rather than from all of Known Space 2) The Belters supplied the tobacco, leaving the door open for the explanation in a future story. 3) changed "death and dissection" to "death by dissection" which reads scarier 4) fixed a tense incongruency and clarified a pronoun.

[Geo]

A problem with this is why would the ever-stoic, efficient Belters waste precious space to cultivate enough tobacco to serve the needs of billions of Flatlanders. At least, I reckon a couple billion Flatlanders would keep the habit if the opportunity was there.

[Rusty Edge]

A problem with this is why would the ever-stoic, efficient Belters waste precious space to cultivate enough tobacco to serve the needs of billions of Flatlanders. At least, I reckon a couple billion Flatlanders would keep the habit if the opportunity was there.

I take your point. Would substituting the Moon colony solve the problem?