Beta Colony

Beta Colony is an important planet (although rarely the setting) in Lois McMaster Bujold's science fiction series the Vorkosigan Saga. The planet's biome is almost entirely desert, described as "screaming hot", and the colony itself exists primarily underground. Beta Colony's chief industries are weapons R&D and sex tourism.

The concept of Beta Colony was first created and introduced in "Dreamweaver's Dilemma". The idea was later expanded upon in Shards of Honor when Bujold needed a homeworld for Cordelia Naismith.

Beta Colony is noted for being a remarkably egalitarian state. Betan culture is also well known for its tolerance and liberal attitude towards all varieties of sexuality; a number of practices considered immoral on many other worlds, such as prostitution (in the form of paid sex therapy) and recreational drug use, are legal and accepted on Beta Colony. Beta Colony is also highly advanced, relative to most other planets, in many areas of technology and medicine. Many innovations mentioned in the Vorkosigan Saga originated on Beta Colony. For this reason, Betan dollars are considered one of the most stable and valuable currencies.

Due to its restricted habitats, reproduction is tightly regulated. After a girl has her first menstrual cycle, she receives a contraceptive implant, has her hymen cut, and has her ears pierced; it's considered a coming of age ceremony and a signal of young adulthood. In order to have children, the two prospective "co-parents" must take a course together and pass a number of physical, psychological and economic tests before being issued parents' licenses. Very few families are authorized to have more than two children. Three-fourths of all Betan children are gestated in artificial wombs, although co-parents who prefer to have their children through old-fashioned pregnancy are free to do so. Genetically engineered Hermaphrodites form a significant minority of the Betan population.

As another ramification of Beta Colony's inhospitable climate and underground development, Betans do not have any noteworthy works of architecture, but are very proud of feats of grand interior design and enclosed public spaces, and consider natural materials such as wood to be almost ludicrously extravagant. Cordelia Naismith is astounded that Barrayarans would use an intricate, antique parquet wooden floor as a dance-floor; on Beta, it would have been preserved and safeguarded as a great work of art.

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