Professor Wayne King-Meiouf of the University of ProximaRecent events have forced the DDS to finally address a question that has been rumbling in the background of Proximan politics for some time, should the DDS have its GHQ so close to Hexian City, the capital of Proxima 7 and the home of the UNP? And they are close, as both the city and GHQ have expanded there is now little countryside remaining between the two. Hexian City have suffered from its proximity (pardon the pun) a number of times, for example during the Great Tarbotian War of the 2090s Hexian City suffered substancial damage during the attack which devastated DDS GHQ.
Discontent with the nearness of GHQ did not really arise in Hexian politics until the Utrek War when the city and its million inhabitants (Hexian City is a fairly average sized city though is well spread out so there is a lot to hit!) when a new political party called for GHQ to be moved. After the ABBO War the party won seats in the Hexian Assembly and now the issue has entered party politics. Now i don't expect the Proximan government to expel the DDS any time soon (or far) but if the DDS did decide to move what would be its options?
Moving to another location on Proxima 7 would be the easiest option though Hexian City was chosen because of its proximity (sorry another pun) to the civilian infrastructure of the capital (back when GHQ was first built P7 was a fairly sparsely populated world) and access to the population centre for workers. Apart from Hexian and a few other cities along a fairly narrow strip of land much of P7 is still fairly wild and untamed, we must remember that a hundred years ago P7 wasn't even known to humans, and colonisation only began around 60 years ago. Thus if the DDS moved it would either have to move near to another city (and have the same problems again) or somewhere undeveloped and have the cost of establishing infrastructure.
Moving off-world is another option, Proxima 5 is even less developed than P7. Solaris would be an option though the DDS already have much of their engineering and science base there and the policy has been for decentralisation to avoid the loss of 1 planet crippling the DDS fatally. Liberation is too unstable, going to Terra would be risky because of the fractured nature of politics on the old home world and would be culturally very difficult for a human race now intent on spreading away from old Earth.
So a space station? An orbital base would be good on a number of points, easier to defend and move though a base the size of GHQ would be the largest man made structure ever constructed in space and therefore rather expensive. The DDS could give up building anything else... like warships for a decade or 3. P7's moon Luna is a possibility though would also be very expensive and take years to set up.
So the best bet for the DDS is for them to stay put and rebuild a consensus with the Hexian people. The DDS need to derisk GHQ by moving facilities like the radiological reprocessing facility away (the fact this has remained at GHQ for so long is a disgrace in my view) and continuing the decentralisation policy. If GHQ can slowly shrink then if the DDS do have to move at one stage in the future then it will be much easier.
