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Ace Dreamer

Meat Factory – 14/Jun/2012
No one's sure who's responsible for the Meat Factory.  The odds are it was a Fen who'd gone quite thoroughly Mad.  Brains stumbled on it while prospecting the Main Belt for a good out-of-the-way asteroid to mine.  A 40', black photo-cell painted, cargo container, with ion jets, half-embedded in a low albedo, mixed organics/water ice/rubble, asteroid of more than a megaton mass.
Looking closer the container was double-ringed by black geodesic domes, and part of a third ring.  Some argument and Uran flew in, used the crude airlock on the side of the container, then called Brains when it looked pretty safe.
The container was lined with galleries of second-hand fantasy and science fiction books, mostly paperback, maybe a tenth hardback.  The books were not well sorted, though some sections were alphabetised by author, and dated from the 70s to the 2000s; maybe several dedicated fans collections?  There were quite a few gaps, sometimes whole rows missing.
Uran was ecstatic.  The book collection she'd always wanted!  Brains cautious, suggested looking round a bit more.  Negotiation continued while a pair of spindly-looking robots, pushing a book trolley, wandered in, ignoring them.  One knelt on the deck and rolled a number of polyhedral dice.  The other read the dice, and went over to shelves, selecting books.  Repeating this process until the trolley was mostly full.
Brains and Uran followed the robots, and noticed they stopped at some shelves they'd not yet inspected.  The dice were consulted, and what looked like school, technical and general books, like biographies, used to finish filling the trolley.
Intrigued, they continued after the robots, through a bulkhead door.  Into a control room, with a notable hole in a glass window, installed before crude controls, at what must be the front of the container.  The robots rolled the trolley up a ramp, where it looked an airlock had once been.  Into a complex of tunnels.  Into the heart of the asteroid.
As they walked Brains noticed nasty-looking guns, ceiling-mounted, that tracked them at each intersection.  Each had a small, neatly-printed, card near it: "Quiet Please".  He indicated one to Uran, and she started walking on tiptoe, though she'd been pretty silent already.
Several minutes led to a large chamber, partitioned into offices and workrooms.  They faced an old-style wooden desk behind which sat a stern-faced woman, with disciplined hair, and old-style dark clothes.  Before her a sign "Chief Librarian".
Holding a finger up for silence, she indicated a door marked "Office".  Rising she led them, revealing her legs and lower body matched that of the spindly robots.  The door was closed.
"Are you from the government?"  Brains and Uran looked at each other, noting a gun on the ceiling was tracking them.  "No", Brains replied.
---

The lady robot was revealed to be an avatar of the trio of AI who ran the asteroid, "Library Alpha".  These AI, while obviously brilliant in some areas, were overall of limited intellect, and had a number of fixed and very dubious ideas about how the world worked.  One was the Librarian, but she was outvoted by the other two, the Literacy officer, tasked with promoting literacy, and the Membership officer, tasked with promoting library membership.
Literacy and Membership had been using books to feed a set of wavium Bioroid Moulds (Brains speculated the original Fen might've had 'harem' plans).  Producing literate people who were library members, using CHON resources mined from the asteroid.  Then keeping these people in cryogenic suspension, packed like meat, in the domes they'd seen on the surface.  They were proud the library had more than ten thousand members, and that literacy was effectively promoted.
Librarian was furious books were permanently consumed in this process, and only about half the original collection was left.  She was enthusiastic about acquiring more books.  Brains cautiously asked about the guns, and was told, with a tight smile, they were "freeze rays", to "maintain library discipline".
Thinking quickly, Brains explained he was from a private philanthropic organisation, "HH Investments", giving grants to promote wider library use.  He suggested any future branch libraries would count towards the library membership numbers, and mentioned he was prepared to make grants towards literacy teaching.
Librarian summoned avatars for Literacy and Membership, robot ladies who's upper bodies resembled a pleasant teacher and a businesswoman respectively.  Though suspicious, the AIs agreed to further talks.  Uran remained remarkably subdued.  Tea and biscuits were delivered, after a while, which Brains thought it wise to sample.

---

Brains ended up cloaking the asteroid with a number of invisibility techniques, as well as installing really good passive sensors.  The library grew a small publishing section, for astronomical observations made by these sensors, run by the Librarian.  After he found a number of obviously too noisy Fen were stored with the 'meat' (their vehicles had been 'recycled'), he fitted a good enough drive for the asteroid to slowly relocate itself.
Brains carefully sold the spare minerals, mined in the process of building-up library membership, through a number of cut-outs; he thinks a lot ended up on Mundane Earth, via Australia.  This paid Fen compensation for their lost property, and he quietly dropped them off on the Moon, mostly at Kandor City, on the basis they could get to most places from there.  They all had fuzzy memories of asteroid exploration, and were mostly grateful for rescue by "Dr Scure".
Remaining money went to set-up "LLM Services", administration done by "HH Personnel".  LLM buys stock of closing second-hand bookshops, the residue of books from estate sales, library old stock, and books that would otherwise go to be pulped (best sellers are mostly avoided), exporting them into Fenspace.  These books populate libraries, and sell via second-hand bookshops, though about a quarter secretly end up at Library Alpha (via invisible ships).
LLM is in no way connected to carefully hidden sales of minerals which continue to be mined from the library asteroid (two more asteroids are marked to be consumed in due course).  It's claimed that Fen are so interested in books that it's self-financing, and as a private organisation no one gets to look at the accounts.  Brains has a rumour ready, if anyone pokes around, about them being run by secretive philanthropic bibliophiles.  Which, in a way, isn't too far from the truth.
HH Personnel hires Fen who want to do office work, or even 'Dane who're prepared to work in Fenspace, and generally acts as a recruiting agency.  What they're not talking about is they're finding lives and jobs for the 'meat' from Library Alpha.  They also make start-up loans to people needing "grub stakes", at interest rates pegged just above inflation.  In some cases, like for teachers, these are flat-out grants.  All this has rather strained Brains finances, and he's had to branch-out into new areas.
The 'meat' are normal healthy humans of either gender, aged 18 to 30, average height, build and appearance, and are culturally almost all either UK, US or European (based on the books used to make them).  They're all literate, of average or above average intelligence, and don't think or talk much about their background on Mundane Earth; it's a bit sketchy.  If pressed they'll say they're making a 'clean break', or hint about 'relationship issues', while saying they've no legal problems – they really don't want to talk about it.  Most will admit they've changed their name, or are only using a first name or a nickname.  Really suspicious people might think they're suffering from mental tampering.  Otherwise they're pretty sane and well adjusted.  They're all Fen, and have a book or author they really like.  All have useful skills, many in technical areas, or teaching, and they all think libraries and membership of them is a good idea!

Open Source
You might have wondered how various off-Earth populations built-up so fast – well, now you know!
The products of the Meat Factory (Uran named this) do not know each other, or are any particular faction, but if you wanted to give them a group name you could use 'Literati'.  Literati can be used freely.
You can use 'Library Alpha' or any of its branches (or LLM Services), if you like – but note that serious attempts will be made to keep the asteroid and its (current) location hidden.  Freeze rays induce suspended animation in humans, and the cold is bad for all but specialist machinery.  Keep Quiet In The Library!  Reference to second-hand bookshops in Fenspace is encouraged!
Please ask if you want to use HH Personnel, if it may impact on Brains or associates; HH Investments was something Brains invented on the spot, and is really his long-suffering personal finances.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Ace Dreamer

META "Meat Factory"

Firstly, I'm not very happy about the writing in this. Its not really a story, a faction write-up, or an organisation description.

But, it could answer the question "where did all these people come from?", that I've seen asked around the forums as a Fenspace speed of growth issue.

So, here it is!

The "Bioroid Mould" is sort of from Shirow's "Appleseed". It makes living creatures who're effectively humans, can inter-breed with them, etc.
It'll be really messy when someone finds out about this, and they will...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Ace Dreamer Wrote:The "Bioroid Mould" is sort of from Shirow's "Appleseed". It makes living creatures who're effectively humans, can inter-breed with them, etc.
It'll be really messy when someone finds out about this, and they will...

I've very carefully not going to say anything about this just yet – I want to see what other people think first.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

HRogge

I am not sure this fits Fenspace...

a group of AIs producing humanoids with artificial memories as servants/members? Thats already deep in the dark grey area, more even than the Shadowrunning story.

and its also mass producing humans? More than 10000 of them? I don't think this SHOULD be easily possible in Fenspace, even if the forum decides that it could fit Fenspace.
Depends on the rate of generation, really. But then, how many fen up there have an SO who would be a Literati if they existed?
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat

them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Ace Dreamer

Quote:I am not sure this fits Fenspace...

a group of AIs producing humanoids with artificial memories as
servants/members? Thats already deep in the dark grey area, more even
than the Shadowrunning story.

and its also mass producing humans? More than 10000 of them? I don't
think this SHOULD be easily possible in Fenspace, even if the forum
decides that it could fit Fenspace.
As written this isn't dystopian.  Arguably it's humourous - the 'meat' is as fully human as possible so they are good library members!  (And, obviously literate.)  It is just they're members 'on ice'.  Their lives start when they are defrosted at Luna, and they receive support in doing so.  Pointing this out to the AIs might be one way Brains would pry their 'frozen membership' free.
I'm not saying this should be easy in Fenspace, it's a hopefully unique though potentially incredibly useful and dangerous event - the sort of thing handwavium throws up.  A now-dead Mad, their harem plans, their differently social AIs with their own strong motivations, a ready supply of physical and intellectual raw materials - not a common combination.  I suspect the Bioroid Moulds require everyone made using them to be unique - no copying or clones.
Trans-humanism, which Fenspace is heading into, protected by the benevolent 'wish granting' tech of handwavium, is about the limits of humanity, and what makes us human.  Ultimately, it's about how we live our lives, not where we came from, or how much flesh or metal is in our make-up.  Post-humanism, after a Vinge-ian Singularity, that's very difficult, partly because there might not be much that's human left to empathise with.  But, we can hope.
[end of serious mode]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Ace Dreamer

Foxboy Wrote:Depends on the rate of generation, really. But then, how many fen up there have an SO who would be a Literati if they existed?
I wouldn't dare comment on people's life choices. [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Honestly, I don't think we even need this in the setting. It's perfectly reasonable for Fenspace to gain 1.75 million (2015 rough pop) people from Earth.

Ace Dreamer

I was doing some rough math...

In the UK there are probably no more than 10,000 science fiction fans, defined as those who have attended at least one convention. I think that is close to the definition of "Fen"; people dedicated enough to take the trouble to attend a con. If you assume a UK population of 50 million that is one in five thousand of the population is Fen.

How many Fen in the US? If you say the US has eight times the population of the UK would you have 80,000? I don't know.

If you call the World Population 11 billion and say the proportion is the same then that is 2 million; I think 200 thousand is a more likely estimate.

Say 10% of Fen are prepared to go out into Fenspace, and can somehow manage to do it. That is 20 thousand.

With the population of Kandor City being quoted as 250 thousand you might guess at a million Fen scattered throughout Fenspace.

If you plan on the population of Fenspace being mostly Fen, with Mundanes in a secondary role, I think you need to think carefully about what is possible...
How much of the population needs to be Fen not 'Dane, for you to go on calling it 'Fenspace'?

Of course, it's possible my math is totally wrong! [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Ace Dreamer

Somehow double-post.  Broadband or forum glitch.  Sorry.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
We do not need it forpopulation, and in fact I think it cheapens the entire dream than is Fenspace.

On the other hand, as the source of a few dozen/hundreds of people wandering out there, who think are real Earth people, but in truth everything they know comes from books, is another thing

An "american" fen who honestly thinks the USA they are from is the one in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, including Ryan as the president, has potential...

Ace Dreamer

Rakhasa Wrote:An "american" fen who honestly thinks the USA they are from is the one in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, including Ryan as the president, has potential...
That could be fun...
Depends how good a job handwavium has done at assembling a real personality from the hints provided by books - most AIs seem to come out OK and reasonably sane, but I'm unsure "real humans" would...
Maybe they'd think they were somehow dimensional travellers?  If they were forced to look at 'real history'...
I think most 'bioroid' Literati would be OK, with real history, but I guess you could say a few (1%, maybe?) believed their world was the one from their "favourite biographies".  You could argue those wouldn't be Fen, though, more someone with major delusions...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
I think they should be rare enough.... not much more than three figures. And something about the concept creeps me out on a certain level. There's nothing *wrong* with it as such..... but mass produced people just makes me feel a bit 'odd'.... especially once the process is discovered.

And not all people living in Fenspace are necessarily Sci-Fi/Animé/Game whatever Fans. A great deal probably aren't.... at least not when they first 'emigrate to Australia'. Especially as Fenspace starts growing and growing, economic migration from mundania is going to be a big deal what with almost zero border control and no worrying about work visas and the like. There're plenty of people down there who'll happily do whatever work you pay them to do, not because they find the whole concept interesting, but because the pay is good and it'll go a ways back home.

Then you have the others, fringe groups who want to run their own societies as they see fit free from influence away out in the main belt. There're plenty of folks out there who'll set up stakes on a rock solely to show that their model for a society is a better one. The libertarian Miner stereotype is just one......
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
A few ideas, which may be taken or abandoned as people see fit...

(1) Not everybody in space is a Fan.

This is certainly true on station Colony, where the 'dane and Fendane mechanics outnumber the Cylon-Galactica Fen. The Crystal Millennium has its share of Age of Sail fans, as opposed to the action-grrl or magical-girl Fen. There are going to be people in space who are there because, hey, they're in SPACE, and that's just Cool!

(2) It's "Fenspace" because that's what the 'danes call it.

The Fen refer to themselves in the whole as "the Convention," after all – still a Fen term, but an inclusive one.

(3) Not every Boskonian group had a Catgirling Machine in June 2012.

At that point, there may have still only been the original machine (the one described in the FenWiki.) Other Boskonians would have been working on duplicating it and the brainwashing device, but with mixed success.

Putting these together:

A Boskonian group grabs some unfortunates from some overpopulated place on Earth, brainwashes them, and keeps them "on ice" until they can be modded. However, those criminals are one of the first groups to be taken out by a Great Justice task force, and knowledge of the existence of the base is lost until Brains and Uran discover it.

There wouldn't be over a million people trapped there - a few hundred is more reasonable, while a case could be made for a few thousand (at most) if the Boskonians were very busy. But this could be done, and it doesn't violate anything that's already been established by existing stories.

Thoughts?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Ace Dreamer

You could slice this loads of ways.
For example, when Brains goes and looks at the cryogenic storage domes he finds, in almost every case, a bioroid chip, with a potential mind in it, instead of an embodied mind. The number of bodies is just enough for [[whatever]. Maybe there are the CHON supplies with each chip that would be needed to embody them? So, the "literate library members" almost all exist in potentia, rather than as living human bodies on ice.
The Boskonia prisoners 'on ice' would be another, quite nice, possibility (except from the viewpoint of the prisoners).
For real fun mix the two - mostly potential Literati as chips, some Literati embodied, some Boskone prisoners as this was a convenient place to keep people, and it could always be properly exploited later. If the Boskone didn't trust each other (quite possible) maybe only the faction actually wiped-out by Great Justice knew about Library Alpha, and the secret died with them.
If people aren't happy with a concept, as something in Fenspace, it makes sense to adapt it so it fits-in and should work.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

HRogge

A few hundred also make more sense because its unlikely that anyone has been able to build a completely autonomous station that can create enough biomass for tenthousands of people.

Ace Dreamer

If you assume that the average fit adult male is 155lb, and female 127.5lb (taken from online charts), so assuming equal numbers of each gender the average is about 140lb.

So, you only need about 640tns of CHON (plus trace elements) for 10 thousand.

Alternativly, use The Professors machine as a guide and say 200lb each, call it 220lbs to ensure you get clothes and basic equipment, so 1000tns for 10 thousand Literati. (I'm using metric tonnes, here, 220lbs or 100kg per ton, for ease.)

[[You're making people, so making clothes to fit them makes sense, and reduces the 'R' rateing risks!]

Mining robots directed by AIs, feeding automated refining equipment, should easily be able to do this over a few years, hollowing-out an asteroid that masses over a megatonne, even if the mix of elements contains only about 10% CHON; 1% would be OK, only using a tenth of the asteroid.

The Catgirling Machine takes 15mins to remangle someone, The Professors machine takes one or two hours to more than a day to make a Julian Friez from raw chemicals, so call it twelve hours for simplicity.

Say there were six Bioroid Moulds, a reasonable harem size, and that they've been used and kept in repair continuously by an unsleeping robot workforce directed by AIs. Assume that, due to repairs, you've had the equivalent of five of those available.

So, you get ten Literati a day, about 2.75 years for ten thousand. About 3650 per year.

The math looks OK...

The question is: does this suit the sort of story you're trying to tell for Fenspace?

[[I wonder if the original harem, say the six girls of "Love Hina", is still about, 'on ice'? And, if woken, they have any opinions about being someone's 'harem'? I've this suspicion that the original deceased Mad didn't think about his harem not agreeing with the idea.]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Ace Dreamer

Maybe the original deceased Mad was a Boskone researcher who'd worked on making more Catgirling Machines, and developed the Bioroid Moulds instead? These made new Fen rather than turning people into catgirls.

Then fled, to set-up his own little kingdom and harem?

He'd take some mining robots to set-up shop.

Unfortunately, the cargo container with 'mining robots' had supervisor AIs oriented to mine and set-up a library. Bonus! The Mad gets his own library to lord over.

Then he finds the Belt, while pretty safe, has a few natural hazards. There were good reasons the Boskone weren't using the container ship for other things. So he dies of micro-meteorite to the face, and gets recycled for biomass. Along with all his food supplies, clothes, etc. Probably used to help make his harem. [grin]

The harem are put on ice as the AIs haven't thought they'd need to feed them, and a library without people wandering around, reading and borrowing the books, is so much easier to run! [grin]

But, more library members would be really nice, so...
Now a Story: http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/top ... em-Library !
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

HRogge

Just because you have a raw resource for carbon, oxygen and nitrogen does not mean you already have organic matter. You need a complete chemical industry to go from "raw asteroid stuff" to organic ones, otherwise biomass would be dirt cheap in Fenspace.

The catgirling machine takes a humanoid being and transforms it into a different one with a lot of handwavium. It already has the resources it needs to do the job...

Ace Dreamer

If you've got plenty of power, in the form of solar energy, and you're prepared to accept low yeilds, then going from CHON to organic material doesn't require a complete chemical industry. You might like to look at the 1950s experiments into the origin of life from the 'primordial soup':

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...%E2%80%93Urey_experiment

Venus is short of hydrogen, Luna is short of carbon and nitrogen, mixed asteroids seem to have most of what you want, without the pain of hauling it out of a gravity well. Part of the economy of Fenspace is likely getting the right chemical elements to the right place. Ammonia may be a useful feedstock, though its nasty stuff. Ammonium nitrate, plus some carbon to soak up the balance, say as hydrocarbons, is pretty well solid oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.
Solid CO2 from Venus to Saturn's moon Titan, ammonium nitrate and carbon goes to Luna, ammonium nitrate and minerals go from Luna to Venus.  Ammonium nitrate and carbon, gives you solid CHON, sold all over the Solar System.

As for biomass, plants quickly provide it. Just give them an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, with trace carbon dioxide, water, a few trace minarals, and water. Viola!

If you want to cheat, there're quite a few handwavium recycling set-ups, that take waste carbon dioxide and sewage and provide you with air, water and stuff a human can live on. Though after a while you'll kill for a bacon sandwich (or the vegetarian equivalent - marmite/vegemite?).
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

HRogge

Ace Dreamer Wrote:If you've got plenty of power, in the form of solar energy, and you're prepared to accept low yeilds, then going from CHON to organic material doesn't require a complete chemical industry. You might like to look at the 1950s experiments into the origin of life from the 'primordial soup':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2% ... experiment

Venus is short of hydrogen, Luna is short of carbon and nitrogen, mixed asteroids seem to have most of what you want, without the pain of hauling it out of a gravity well. Part of the economy of Fenspace is likely getting the right chemical elements to the right place. Ammonia may be a useful feedstock, though its nasty stuff. Ammonium nitrate, plus some carbon to soak up the balance, say as hydrocarbons, is pretty well solid oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.
Solid CO2 from Venus to Saturn's moon Titan, ammonium nitrate and carbon goes to Luna, ammonium nitrate and minerals go from Luna to Venus.  Ammonium nitrate and carbon, gives you solid CHON, sold all over the Solar System.

As for biomass, plants quickly provide it. Just give them an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, with trace carbon dioxide, water, a few trace minarals, and water. Viola!

If you want to cheat, there're quite a few handwavium recycling set-ups, that take waste carbon dioxide and sewage and provide you with air, water and stuff a human can live on. Though after a while you'll kill for a bacon sandwich (or the vegetarian equivalent - marmite/vegemite?).

My point was that your asteroid without even a crew, just a group of 3 AIs and some robots did it all on its own. No external supplies, no large crew, just some self contained system.

Ace Dreamer

See: http://www.daviddarling.i...a/V/vonNeumannprobe.html

You are using macro tech and some handwaved gadgets to bootstrap your way up, instead of full-blown molecular nanotech.

Personally, I'd like a team of human or equivalent engineers there to supervise.

But, with a bit of luck to stop anything too disastrous happening, and enough foresight on the part of the terraforming kit designer...

Do-able. Slow, but doable.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Ace Dreamer

Library Membership - 16/Jun/2012
"Tell me again.  Why aren't we cracking this place like a nut?"
"Simple answer: too much effort for too little gain."
"Complex answer.  Cobra Squad tried to, nine months ago, and disappeared.  We sent that whiner, Smith, in to find out what happened.  He was all polite, like. Got told the squad was being 'disciplined' as 'temporary library members', and their 'noise-makers' confiscated."
"Three months ago we got them back, just in their underwear, but otherwise healthy.  Their memories were a bit hazy about what happened, but it looked liked they'd been captured, stripped, and put on ice.  Their assault vehicle, weapons, power suits, all recycled."
"Funny thing was, they said they'd seen no one.  Just these skinny robots.  They were all for going in again, EMP grenades, anti-robot weapons, the lot.  If that didn't work, put up sunshades, block their solar panels.  Starve them out.  But the Boss, he said, lets think about it."
"So, here we are.  We dump these prisoners on them as 'temporary library members', until we come and collect them, but at least six months.  All we have to do is get them to groan or swear at us, at the wrong time."
"We don't have to feed them.  We don't have to guard them.  Everybody wins."
"Now, shut up.  We need to be really quiet for this next bit."
"Unless you want a 'temporary library membership'."
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Ace Dreamer

META "Library Membership"

Was this the sort of thing you had in mind, Mr Kelk? [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Ace Dreamer

Meat Factory - 16/Jun/2012
No one's sure who's responsible for the Meat Factory.  The odds are it was a Fen who'd gone quite thoroughly Mad.  Brains stumbled on it while prospecting the Main Belt for a good out-of-the-way asteroid to mine.  A 40', black photo-cell painted, cargo container, with ion jets, half-embedded in a low albedo, mixed organics/water ice/rubble, asteroid of more than a megaton mass.
Looking closer the container was double-ringed by black geodesic domes, and part of a third ring.  Some argument and Uran flew in, used the crude airlock on the side of the container, then called Brains when it looked pretty safe.
The container was lined with galleries of second-hand fantasy and science fiction books, mostly paperback, maybe a tenth hardback.  The books were not well sorted, though some sections were alphabetised by author, and dated from the 70s to the 2000s; maybe several dedicated fans collections?  There were quite a few gaps, sometimes whole rows missing.
Uran was ecstatic.  The book collection she'd always wanted!  Brains cautious, suggested looking round a bit more.  Negotiation continued while a pair of spindly-looking robots, pushing a book trolley, wandered in, ignoring them.  One knelt on the deck and rolled a number of polyhedral dice.  The other read the dice, and went over to shelves, selecting books.  Repeating this process until the trolley was mostly full.
Brains and Uran followed the robots, and noticed they stopped at some shelves they'd not yet inspected.  The dice were consulted, and what looked like school, technical and general books, like biographies, used to finish filling the trolley.
Intrigued, they continued after the robots, through a bulkhead door.  Into a control room, with a notable hole in a glass window, installed before crude controls, at what must be the front of the container.  The robots rolled the trolley up a ramp, where it looked an airlock had once been.  Into a complex of tunnels.  Into the heart of the asteroid.
As they walked Brains noticed nasty-looking guns, ceiling-mounted, that tracked them at each intersection.  Each had a small, neatly-printed, card near it: "Quiet Please".  He indicated one to Uran, and she started walking on tiptoe, though she'd been pretty silent already.
Several minutes led to a large chamber, partitioned into offices and workrooms.  They faced an old-style wooden desk behind which sat a stern-faced woman, with disciplined hair, and old-style dark clothes.  Before her a sign "Chief Librarian".
Holding a finger up for silence, she indicated a door marked "Office".  Rising she led them, revealing her legs and lower body matched that of the spindly robots.  The door was closed.
"Are you from the government?"  Brains and Uran looked at each other, noting a gun on the ceiling was tracking them.  "No", Brains replied.
---

The lady robot was revealed to be an avatar of the trio of AI who ran the asteroid, "Library Alpha".  These AI, while obviously brilliant in some areas, were overall of limited intellect, and had a number of fixed and very dubious ideas about how the world worked.  One was the Librarian, but she was outvoted by the other two, the Literacy officer, tasked with promoting literacy, and the Membership officer, tasked with promoting library membership.
Literacy and Membership had been using books to feed a set of wavium Bioroid Moulds (Brains speculated the original Fen might've had 'harem' plans).  Producing literate people who were library members, using CHON resources mined from the asteroid.  Then keeping these people in cryogenic suspension, packed like meat, in the domes they'd seen on the surface.  They were proud the library had more than ten thousand members, and that literacy was effectively promoted.
Librarian was furious books were permanently consumed in this process, and only about half the original collection was left.  She was enthusiastic about acquiring more books.  Brains cautiously asked about the guns, and was told, with a tight smile, they were "freeze rays", to "maintain library discipline".
Thinking quickly, Brains explained he was from a private philanthropic organisation, "HH Investments", giving grants to promote wider library use.  He suggested any future branch libraries would count towards the library membership numbers, and mentioned he was prepared to make grants towards literacy teaching.
Librarian summoned avatars for Literacy and Membership, robot ladies who's upper bodies resembled a pleasant teacher and a businesswoman respectively.  Though suspicious, the AIs agreed to further talks.  Uran remained remarkably subdued.
Tea and biscuits were delivered, after a while, which Brains thought it wise to sample.

Postscript
Brains ended up cloaking the asteroid with a number of invisibility techniques, as well as installing really good passive sensors.  The library grew a small publishing section, for astronomical observations made by these sensors, run by the Librarian.  After he found a number of obviously too noisy Fen were stored with the 'meat' (their vehicles had been 'recycled'), he fitted a good enough drive for the asteroid to slowly relocate itself.
Strangely enough, there were other people in cold store than the Fen.  Best as he could tell they were Boskone prisoners, and had all been mentally abused, by some sort of device.  Hard to tell, but with good treatment they should all eventually recover.
The 'meat' proved to be a smaller problem than he feared.  Only the first few domes were occupied, several hundred people in total.  Plus the Fen and prisoners.  The rest were 'bioroid chips', some sort of persona storage device, and CHON supplies ready to make their bodies.  Looked like the Bioroid Moulds hadn't been designed for such heavy use, and after a while the AIs couldn't keep them in repair; the chips were a compromise.  Brains wasn't sure if he could fix them, but the AIs certainly wouldn't let him take them away to try elsewhere.
Brains carefully sold the spare minerals, mined in the process of building-up library membership, through a number of cut-outs; he thinks a lot ended up on Mundane Earth, via Australia.  This paid Fen and prisoners compensation for their lost property, and generally being lost.  He quietly dropped them off on the Moon, mostly at Kandor City, on the basis they could get to most places from there.  They all had fuzzy memories of the asteroid, and were mostly grateful for rescue by "Dr Scure".
Remaining money went to set-up "LLM Services", administration done by "HH Personnel".  LLM buys stock of closing second-hand bookshops, the residue of books from estate sales, library old stock, and books that would otherwise go to be pulped (best sellers are mostly avoided), exporting them into Fenspace.  These books populate libraries, and sell via second-hand bookshops, though about a quarter secretly end up at Library Alpha (via invisible ships).
LLM is in no way connected to carefully hidden sales of minerals which continue to be mined from the library asteroid (two more asteroids are marked to be consumed in due course).  It's claimed that Fen are so interested in books that it's self-financing, and as a private organisation no one gets to look at the accounts.  Brains has a rumour ready, if anyone pokes around, about them being run by secretive philanthropic bibliophiles.  Which, in a way, isn't too far from the truth.
HH Personnel hires Fen who want to do office work, or even 'Dane who're prepared to work in Fenspace, and generally acts as a recruiting agency.  What they're not talking about is they're finding lives and jobs for the 'meat' from Library Alpha.  They also make start-up loans to people needing "grub stakes", at interest rates pegged just above inflation.  In some cases, like for teachers, these are flat-out grants.  All this has rather strained Brains finances, and he's had to branch-out into new areas.

The 'Meat', products of the 'Meat Factory' (AKA 'Literati')
The 'meat' are normal healthy humans of either gender, aged 18 to 30, average height, build and appearance, and are culturally almost all either UK, US or European (based on the books used to make them).
They're all literate, of average or above average intelligence, and don't think or talk much about their background on Mundane Earth; it's a bit sketchy.  If pressed they'll say they're making a 'clean break', or hint about 'relationship issues', while saying they've no legal problems - they really don't want to talk about it.  Most will admit they've changed their name, or are only using a first name or a nickname.  Really suspicious people might think they're suffering from mental tampering.
Otherwise they're pretty sane and well adjusted.  They're all Fen, and have a book or author they really like.  All have useful skills, many in technical areas, or teaching, and they all think libraries and membership of them is a good idea!

Open Source
You might have wondered how various off-Earth populations built-up so fast - well, now you know!  But, as this story stands, there are only a few hundred embodied Literati.
The products of the Meat Factory (Uran named this) do not know each other, or are any particular faction, but if you wanted to give them a group name you could use 'Literati'.  Literati can be used freely.
You can use 'Library Alpha' or any of its branches (or LLM Services), if you like - but note that serious attempts will be made to keep the asteroid and its (current) location hidden.  Freeze rays induce suspended animation in humans, and the cold is bad for all but specialist machinery.  Keep Quiet In The Library!  Reference to second-hand bookshops in Fenspace is encouraged!
Please ask if you want to use HH Personnel, if it may impact on Brains or associates; HH Investments was something Brains invented on the spot, and is really his long-suffering personal finances.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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