Valinda
Valinda[edit]
027 Aquila E 435 310 9 Low Population[edit]
Total population 1200 Colonies: Valinda 10
Valinda is the private estate of the de Haviland family, a bunch of bogglingly rich types with branches of the family from all over Known Space. Quite what they thought they were going to do with it is unknown. Only one of them lives here, Yves de Haviland, an exile from a core world who got caught money laundering, tax evading and the like. He has a pressure domed 'manor'with a few dozen staff, cronies and mercenary guards - security is tight. The rest of the settlement is a rather gimcrack affair, a frontier town attached to a starship landing field with a rough and ready direct democracy. Surprisingly little criminality. Though Yves does not like law enforcement from offworld, or indeed any law beyond his own whim of the day, any offworld gangster seeking to take advantage of his 'hospitality' gets a visit from his retainers and blown quite comprehensively away. The last thing he wants is some gang of piratical bastards giving an over zealous police force the excuse to invade. The settlers do include plenty of petty criminals though, and Yves makes it clear that he won't mess with them. Vigilante shootings happen often enough for most to get the message about local larceny. The Catholic Church has a reasonably successful mission here, though Yves annoyingly enough has openly declared himself a member of the Reformed Temple of Satan and refuses to have anything to do with them. He even has inverted pentacle badges for his retainer's livery.
The de Havilands have had plenty of offers for the world - thought the atmosphere is very thin and the local ecosystem is some spongy bryozoanalikes and some squidgy sea mats, the place has potential. They steadfastly refuse to allow other interests on the world though, and all kinds of rumours abound as to why. The secret family vault and immortality research labs are the most popular.
