In this installment of Galactic Destinations’ offshoot, “The Architect’s Angle” we explore the attempts made by upright Citizens to preserve the historic buildings on their stations. Enjoy!
Welcome fellow world builders, aspiring apprenti, and curious craniums to the first installment of “The Architect’s Angle”. This periodical is dedicated to the exploration and examination of architectural and engineering feats throughout Tau. Everything from asteroid settlement engineering to Stanford Torus construction, to Old World masonry methodology -if someone built it, we dig it.
For our pilot interview, I had the pleasure of speaking with an old friend, Ser Jean Ketland of the Pompadour Historic Preservation Society. Ser Ketland owns several high-end art galleries throughout Pompadour and is also a collector of prized objets d’art. He was instrumental in passing laws that now protect many of the Old World buildings that had fallen into disrepair on Pompadour after the Catastrophe.
Frank Knowright: Jean. So good to see you again. I think it’s been since university, no?
Jean Ketland: At least since then, yes. So many cycles.
Frank Knowright: Tell us about this preservation project you’ve undertaken in Pompadour. From my recollection the Gaule do an excellent job in maintaining the aesthetic quality of their station, no?
Jean Ketland: We do Frank, and we can do better. That’s why my daughter and I started the society with a close-knit group of friends. We’ve helped enact laws to maintain the Catacombs and preserve the beautiful works of art that were commonplace in Pre-Cat Pompadour.
Frank Knowright: The Catacombs too? I hear that’s a pretty dangerous place these days.
Jean Ketland: They are. Abandoned, neglected and dangerous. All the more reason to clean them up. You don’t destroy something that you respect Frank. You don’t damage beautiful things.
Frank Knowright: That’s an interesting take. I always figured that you shouldn’t destroy or damage things based on a fundamental respect for your surroundings, rather than on the quality of the object in question…. But what do I know? You’re a successful intersystem art dealer and I write for the Architect’s Angle. What other projects do you have blueprints for?
Jean Ketland: We’re also making a major push to designate the Haussman neighborhood as a historic district. You know that some of the buildings are believed to have been relocated straight from Old Earth? Many of the structures are Pre-Cat moon rock structures dating back to the station’s Belle Epoque. Two kilometers South of the mines, the District Haussman is made up of four concentric blocks of regal, stone apartment buildings surrounding the Park LeClerc. A Park we’ll be doing work on too. Nothing gets by the Society.
Frank Knowright: Wow. Ominous way to put that. Isn’t that neighborhood home to thousands of migrant workers? Won’t those changes affect them? Drive up real-estate prices on an already overpopulated and popular station?
Jean Ketland: People come and go Frank, buildings stay. I hear there’s a population crisis on nearby LeGuin that I’m certain would welcome an influx of “visitors”.
Frank Knowright: Funny how you felt the need to use air quotes for the word “visitor” there Jean. Why don’t we move swiftly along…. To any other conversation.
That’s all from me, Frank Knowright. You can catch Jean Ketland, and his daughter Artemis in the mission “Cradling the Stars” on Madame de Pompadour.