Tarim Basin

The Tarim Basin is the setting of much of the action of the early part of Zigsa's story. It was part of the Lionfist corporate territory.

Economic significance

After the Helios Fail of 2048, the Tarim Basin became the world's only functioning oilfield. Petroleum was no longer used for bulk energy as fusion reactors were developed in the 2050s, but the hanyso still coveted it as fuel for their muscle cars, yachts, private jets and other luxury machines. The race for oil therefore became a prestige issue significant for winning.

Along with Satellite City in the Quaidam Basin, the Tarim Basin became a major source of revenue for Lionfist, which lacked other resources. Lionfist soon realised it didn't have the firepower to keep the other corps out of Tarim, and invited them to hold franchises on the oilfields there. Fifteen corporations bought drilling rights in 2055. The Tarim Basin rapidly became the party destination of the world, with hanyos wasting in a single night resources that could have fed a service territory for a year. They also competed in collecting exotic plants and animals which they then neglected, burned and tortured, or forced to fight for their entertainment. Models, Pharm Girls and other human party fodder were also regularly externed to the radiopoisoned desert when the hanyos tired of them. After 2071, this wastefulness of the Tarim corporations helped Zigsa gather people and resources to build Zigsa's Nest.

The Human Resources problem

The rowdiness of the Tarim franchisees was a continuing problem for Lionfist in the 2060s. As the corporations lived as neighbours, yet hated each other and constantly tried to spy on or suborn each other's employees, keeping the peace was quite a challenge.By the late 2060s, even Lionfist's own corporate security in Tarim was riddled with informers and so corrupt no one could tell who was working for whom after a while. The problem therefore landed on the desk of Basil Quan, Head of Human Resources for Lionfist.

Basil Quan was obsessed with an idea. As a child, he had witnessed a protest by three Tibetan monks in the 2030s, where they had immolated themselves in front of the Lionfist headquarters in the Red Basin. These monks had been Old Men, that is their skins had normal sensitivity and they could feel pain. However they sat calmly as they burned, even nodding and smiling at passers-by. Quan was deeply impressed: even a hanyo could not have withstood the flames so calmly. He became consumed by a desire to find the secret of this power.

Basil Quan's project

Much later, when Quan was a senior exec for Human Resources, he set up a network of secret Test to Destruction Centres in the Lop Nur desert, where he sent people rejected by Human Resources to be tortured and observed. Most test subjects did not last more than a few weeks before destruction. This trend was broken when Zigsa was sent to Test to Destruction Centre 8 at teh age of twelve. She survived for three years. In the spring of 2071, three of her testers died by their own hand in mysterious circumstances, piquing Quan's interest. He then came to see for himself.

Zigsa's escape

Zigsa then trekked through the desert to the Flaming Mountains.

The Comet Strike and after

The immediate effect of the combined Comet Strike and volcanic eruptions were the killer superwaves. Several struck the China coast and drastically remodelled it. Both the Red Basin and the Quaidam Basin were buried. Tarim was too far inland to be directly affected, but later as the waters found their level, much of it drained into Lop Nur and eventually Tarim. Tarim became a salty inland sea, the largest non-frozen one in Earthspace.

The Florian Age

The First Forest was established in the area around the Issyk Kul lakes on the western border of the Tarim Basin.