Beta Colony

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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, and the colony itself exists primarily underground.

Beta Colony is noted for being a remarkably egalitarian state; even the military is run by democratic vote. 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 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 overpopulation, reproduction is tightly regulated. 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. Hermaphrodites form a significant minority of the Betan population.

It is unclear which Terran nations may have colonized Beta Colony; both the Americans and the Dutch have been suggested.

Cordelia Naismith (later Cordelia Vorkosigan) was born on Beta Colony and served in its military until, falsely accused of several crimes, she sought asylum on her husband Aral Vorkosigan's homeworld of Barrayar. Their son Miles Vorkosigan is 5/8 Betan; his paternal great-grandmother was also from Beta Colony.