Lunaport

"Evita Jaschini, the Cosmoral (commandant) of Lunaport, is in a secret relationship with the Psyter and is concerned about his presence among the new prisoners."
-- Narrator, Booklet 010, Revolt on Luna

"Valdec's forces launch an attack on Earth, and Chan realizes that Lunaport has fallen."
-- Booklet 085, Valdec's Return

Lunaport is the principal spaceport and military command centre on Luna, Earth's Moon, and one of the most strategically significant installations in the Terran star empire. Serving simultaneously as a Gray Guard garrison, the administrative hub for the Moon Dungeons prison complex, and the personal operational headquarters of Chan de Nouille -- the Great Gray and supreme commander of the Gray Guards -- Lunaport functions as the nerve centre of Gray Guard power throughout much of the Die Terranauten saga. Its history spans the full arc of the series, from the prisoner revolt that launches the MIDAS into intergalactic space (booklet 010) to its fall during Max von Valdec's return to power (booklet 085).

Lunaport is more than a spaceport. It is a fortified military base, a political command post, a prison administration centre, and an intelligence hub. Its central computer, Big Brother, controls surveillance, communications, and automated defences across the entire lunar complex. The base houses the System Defense Central, the Shadow Headquarters of Chan de Nouille's covert intelligence service, and the Cosmomedical Clinic -- a medical facility used for treating and quarantining personnel. The Legions of Lunaport represent the military forces garrisoned there, and the Lunaport Computer Network ties together the base's extensive data and communications infrastructure.

Physical Description and Infrastructure

Lunaport is located on the surface of Luna and functions as the primary point of transit between Earth and the Moon. Its key facilities include:

• Spaceport and docking facilities -- Capable of receiving vessels ranging from small Ringo shuttles to major warships. The base serves as a staging area for Gray Guard fleet operations and prisoner transports.
• Big Brother -- The central computer that controls Lunaport's surveillance systems, communications, automated defences, and internal security. Its disruption during the revolt of 2499 proved catastrophic for the base's defenders.
• Moon Dungeons -- The vast underground prison complex located beneath Luna's surface, administratively subordinate to the Lunaport commandant. The Dungeons are divided into multiple levels, with the deepest -- the Brown Plate -- housing the psychically damaged and most dangerous prisoners.
• Cosmomedical Clinic -- A medical facility used for quarantining and treating personnel, including Drivers and prospectors arriving from off-world. During Valdec's return (booklet 085), the clinic is infiltrated by Clon agents.
• Shadow Headquarters -- The covert operations centre for Chan de Nouille's Shadows, the elite intelligence agents of the Gray Guards who wear Multisensory Masks and carry out clandestine missions across the empire.
• System Defense Central -- The command centre for Luna's defensive systems, coordinating orbital and surface defences.
• Lunaport Computer Network -- The integrated data and communications network connecting Lunaport's facilities, including the Lunaport Files archive.
• Pressure Doors -- Emergency containment system designed to seal off sections of Lunaport in case of hull breach.
• Glide Plates -- Vehicles used for rapid transport through Lunaport's internal tunnel network.
• Counter-Transmitter (Kontratransmitter) -- A device located at Lunaport, later noted as surviving in the destroyed base.
• Hidden ship berths -- At least one concealed berth housed the MIDAS, the experimental Kaiser Force interstellar spacecraft, prior to its seizure during the revolt.

History

Early Period: Garrison and Prison Administration

Lunaport's origins predate the events of the saga, but by the time of its first appearance in Revolt on Luna (circa 2499), it is firmly established as the primary Gray Guard installation on Luna and the administrative hub for the Moon Dungeons. The base is under the command of Cosmoral Evita Jaschini, who oversees both the spaceport operations and the underground prison complex.

At this time, the Council of Corporations uses the Moon Dungeons as a repository for political prisoners, Drivers, dissidents, and other undesirables. Lunaport processes incoming prisoner transports and manages the logistics of what amounts to a penal colony of enormous scale. The base also secretly houses the MIDAS, an experimental Kaiser Force spacecraft -- one of the most valuable military assets in the Council's arsenal.

The Revolt on Luna (2499) -- Booklet 010

The most dramatic early event in Lunaport's history is the prisoner revolt orchestrated by Scanner Cloud, operating under the alias "the Psyter." Cloud had cultivated a secret romantic relationship with Commandant Evita Jaschini, exploiting her emotional attachment to gain detailed intelligence about Lunaport's defences, security protocols, and the MIDAS's existence.

The revolt unfolds in several stages:

1. Preparation: Cloud tasks Morgenstern with retrieving Leande, a former computer technician, from the Brown Plate -- the deepest level of the Moon Dungeons.
2. Reinforcement: New prisoners arrive, including Llewellyn 709, David terGorden (disguised as Ishmail Tout), Angila Fraim, and Sirdina Giccomo -- all powerful Drivers who bolster the conspirators' capabilities.
3. Computer sabotage: Llewellyn and other Drivers psionically heal Leande's shattered mind. She then infiltrates and disables Big Brother, crippling Lunaport's surveillance, communications, and automated defences.
4. Armed uprising: With Big Brother down, prisoners overpower the Gray Guard garrison, seize weapons and spacesuits, and take control of key facilities.
5. The MIDAS seized: The rebels capture the experimental Kaiser Force ship and launch it from Luna.
6. Jaschini's failure: The Commandant realises the Psyter has betrayed her. She attempts to contact Valdec but communications are down. The revolt represents a total collapse of her command.

Chan de Nouille's Headquarters (2500-2503)

Following the revolt and Jaschini's reassignment to the Zoe blockade, Lunaport transitions from a garrison post to a strategic command centre. Chan de Nouille, the Great Gray, establishes Lunaport as her primary operational base -- the seat from which she directs Gray Guard military and intelligence operations across the empire.

In this period, Lunaport serves as:

• Chan de Nouille's personal headquarters, from which she issues orders to her Cosmorals, manages the Shadow intelligence network, and conducts political negotiations
• A meeting point for high-level conferences, including the pivotal encounter with the Terranauts and the alien Cantos
• A staging area for fleet operations, coordinating Gray Guard warships across the Sol System and beyond

Key events at Lunaport during this period include:

December 2501 -- Alliance with the Terranauts (Booklet 050): Chan de Nouille, based at Lunaport, is contacted by Cantos and David terGorden, who warn her of an impending alien attack provoked by the catastrophic side effects of Kaiser Force technology. The alien civilisation of Xaxon has been destroyed, and retaliatory strikes against humanity are imminent. Chan de Nouille agrees to help the Terranauts and plot against Valdec, seeing both a genuine threat and a political opportunity. She lands in Geneva with a legion of Guards and begins contacting opposition corporations -- the first overt move against Valdec's regime.

2502 -- The Fall of the High Lord (Booklet 054): After Valdec dissolves the Council and declares a state of emergency, Llewellyn 709, Narda, and Asen-Ger are escorted to Lunaport by Queen Anafee, where Chan de Nouille awaits. At Lunaport, Chan reveals Valdec's most dangerous secret: he has been illegally deconditioning Gray Guards to be loyal only to himself, bypassing the Cosmorality's authority. She broadcasts this revelation from Lunaport across all Guard channels, causing the Gray Guards to turn against Valdec. This broadcast from Lunaport triggers the coup that topples Valdec's first regime and leads to Ignazius Tyll's appointment as interim Lord Colonel.

September 2503 -- Planning military action (Booklet 078): Chan de Nouille, still based at Lunaport, grapples with escalating chaos on Earth as the F.F.D.E. rebels clash with the corporations. She plans military intervention, overriding David terGorden's objections. David, now Lord Colonel, is intercepted in the Sol System and brought before Chan at Lunaport, where she demonstrates the Gray Guards' military might. David proposes an alternative: a breakthrough to Shondyke to negotiate with the Clone-Queens. Chan agrees to postpone the military operation.

The Space Station (Booklet 049)

In The Computer's Ultimatum (set in 2536 in a timeline event, though the internal chronology places it earlier), Lunaport is described as a "space station orbiting the Moon" -- suggesting it may have both surface and orbital components, or that the term is used loosely to encompass the entire lunar installation complex.

Valdec's Return and the Fall of Lunaport (2504) -- Booklets 085-086

The final and most catastrophic chapter in Lunaport's history occurs during Max von Valdec's return to power.

Infiltration (Booklet 085): Valdec's Clon agents -- genetically engineered Super-Drivers loyal to him -- infiltrate Luna, taking over Gray Guard personnel through psionic suggestion. The Cosmomedical Clinic is compromised when the freighter MARTIN LUTHER KING arrives carrying prospectors infected with the Cold Rot, along with hidden Clon agents. Junk, a Driver aboard the freighter, discovers the infiltration and manages to alert Lunaport before being captured.

Lucci's summons: Manuel Lucci, coordinator of the F.F.D.E., is summoned to Lunaport by Chan de Nouille, who reveals that Valdec's agents have infiltrated Earth and are carrying a nuclear bomb. She requests increased security measures.

The fall: Valdec's forces launch a coordinated attack. Chan de Nouille realises that Lunaport has fallen to the enemy. The base -- for years the seat of her power and the nerve centre of Gray Guard operations -- is conquered by Valdec's Clon and their controlled Gray Guards. Chan is forced to flee and go underground.

Under Valdec's control (Booklet 086): After Valdec's seizure of power, Lunaport is repurposed as a base for his regime. Queen Myra oversees the counter-conditioning of Gray Guards at Lunaport, reprogramming them for loyalty to Valdec rather than Chan de Nouille. The base that once served as the command post for resistance against Valdec becomes an instrument of his restored dictatorship.

Administration and Command

Lunaport's command structure reflects its dual nature as both a military installation and a political power centre.

Known Commanders and Senior Personnel

Strategic Significance

Lunaport's importance to the saga stems from its position at the intersection of military, political, and logistical power:

1. Gateway to the Moon Dungeons: As the administrative hub for the empire's primary penal system, Lunaport controls access to thousands of political prisoners, Drivers, and dissidents. The Moon Dungeons' security is only as strong as Lunaport's own defences -- as the 2499 revolt demonstrated.

1. Gray Guard command centre: Under Chan de Nouille, Lunaport becomes the de facto capital of Gray Guard civilisation -- the place from which the Great Gray directs her armies, her intelligence service, and her political manoeuvres. Fleet movements, Shadow operations, and diplomatic overtures all originate here.

1. Orbital chokepoint: Positioned on Luna, Lunaport commands the space between Earth and the outer system. Ships transiting to and from Earth must pass through its sphere of influence. The base's System Defense Central coordinates the defence of the entire Sol System.

1. Political stage: Some of the saga's most consequential political decisions are made at Lunaport -- the alliance with the Terranauts (booklet 050), the broadcast that topples Valdec (booklet 054), the debate over military intervention on Earth (booklet 078), and the revelation of Valdec's infiltration (booklet 085).

1. Symbol of control: Lunaport's fall to Valdec's forces in booklet 085 symbolises the collapse of the post-Valdec order. When Lunaport falls, the resistance loses its most secure stronghold, and Chan de Nouille is forced into hiding -- a fugitive from the base she once commanded.

Notable Events Timeline

Notable Visitors and Associated Characters

Related Locations and Entities

• Moon Dungeons -- The vast underground prison complex beneath Luna, administratively subordinate to Lunaport
• Big Brother -- Lunaport's central computer, controlling surveillance, communications, and automated defences
• Cosmo-Clinic -- The Cosmomedical Clinic, a medical facility within the Lunaport complex
• Lunaport Shadow Headquarters -- The covert operations centre for Chan de Nouille's Shadow intelligence service
• System Defense Central Lunaport -- The command centre for Luna's defensive systems
• Lunaport Computer Network -- The integrated data and communications network
• Lunaport Files -- The base's data archive
• Legions of Lunaport -- The military forces garrisoned at the base
• Lunaporter Garden (Lunaporter Garde) -- Gray Guard forces based at Lunaport
• Gray Guards -- The military force that controls and operates Lunaport
• MIDAS -- The experimental Kaiser Force ship once hidden at Lunaport
• Luna -- Earth's Moon, the celestial body on which Lunaport is located

Themes

The Fortress That Falls from Within

Lunaport is never conquered by a frontal assault. Both of its great defeats -- the prisoner revolt of 2500 and the Clon infiltration of 2504 -- are accomplished through subversion from within. Scanner Cloud corrupts the commandant through a secret relationship; Valdec's clones infiltrate via diseased refugees brought to the medical clinic. The lesson of Lunaport is that the most formidable fortress is vulnerable not at its walls but at its trust.

Power Projection and Its Limits

As the Gray Guards' operational headquarters, Lunaport represents the projection of centralised military power across the Terran empire. Yet the base repeatedly proves inadequate to the crises it faces. Its central computer can be disabled by a single technician. Its commandant can be manipulated by a prisoner. Its garrison can be subverted through psionic suggestion. Lunaport embodies the paradox of centralised authority: it concentrates power in a single point, making it both supremely powerful and supremely vulnerable.

The Seat of Conspiracies

Lunaport is where the saga's great political conspiracies are hatched. Chan de Nouille plots against Valdec from Lunaport (Booklets 050, 054). She plans military intervention on Earth from Lunaport (Booklet 078). Valdec's agents infiltrate Lunaport as the opening move of his counter-coup (Booklet 085). The base is not merely a military installation but a political arena -- the place where the empire's power brokers meet, scheme, and betray one another.

The Tension Between Two Power Centres

Lunaport crystallises the structural tension within the Gray Guards between operational command and institutional authority. While Chan de Nouille commands operationally from Lunaport, the Cosmorality on Shondyke represents the civilisational authority of the Guard institution itself. When the Clone Queens seize Shondyke (Booklet 036), this tension resolves into outright separation -- with Lunaport becoming the last bastion of Chan's personal authority rather than a node in a broader Guard civilisation.

Connections

• Chan de Nouille -- The Great Gray who made Lunaport the seat of her power and from which she directed the coup against Valdec
• Max von Valdec -- The antagonist whose forces twice disrupted Lunaport -- first through the revolt he allowed to test the MIDAS, later through the Clon infiltration that seized the base
• Evita Jaschini -- The Cosmoral whose compromised personal life enabled the revolt that first brought Lunaport to the saga's attention
• Scanner Cloud -- The Psyter whose manipulation of Jaschini and orchestration of the revolt launched the MIDAS into space
• Terranauts -- The rebel movement that both escaped from Lunaport (booklet 010) and later allied with its commander (booklets 050-078)
• Moon Dungeons -- The prison system that gives Lunaport much of its dark significance
• Kaiser Force -- The dangerous technology whose experimental ship, the MIDAS, was hidden at Lunaport
• F.F.D.E. -- The resistance movement whose leaders sought refuge at Lunaport before its fall
• Cosmorality -- The governing council of the Gray Guards on Shondyke, in structural tension with Lunaport's operational command
• Shadows -- The Gray Guards' covert intelligence operatives, directed from Lunaport's Shadow Headquarters

Appearances (8 booklets)

Lunaport appears in 8 booklets of Die Terranauten. It is the Gray Guards' fortress on Earth's Moon -- a spaceport, a prison gateway, and a seat of power whose control determines the balance of the empire.