Gene Vault (CivBE)

Wonders

Gene Vault
Wonder in Beyond Earth
Cost	250
Maintenance	None
Requires	Genetic Mapping
Specialist slots	None
Effect	+5 Diplomatic Capital
Notes	All new Cities start with a free Worker Unit.

Quote

"The five mythical creatures of Earth are: The dragon, the unicorn, the griffin, the llama, and the chimera." - Ganesh Edmin, Lists of Prehistory

History

Humanity has long considered the question of stocking a given world. Human mythology abounds with people tasked with carrying the seeds of the past with them to new worlds: Noah, Freeman Lowell, Lutunasobasoba and Degei, for example. Given the expense and difficulty of Seeding with the limited resources of Earth, it is unsurprising that most expeditions carried with them genetic libraries of Earth's species of plants and animals. It is likely that at least one Seeding attempt included actual genetic samples, not simply records.

The Gene Vault is a wonder of the first days of planetfall, a structure whose architecture is undeniably terran, not only in its shape but in the materials used in its construction. Within its walls were likely cryogenic banks, the only technology available at the time to reliably store genetic material without damage.

The Gene Vault is a marvel not only for the work required to raise one on a hostile world, but for the profound link it represents to the planet those first colonists left behind. Our understanding of the lives and cultures of those early colonists and the state of the Earth they left behind is due in no small part to its existence. How much more about Old Earth would we know if the genetic records had remained intact?

Images