The maiden interstellar ship, christened the Stjernevandrer, or 'Star Wanderer' in the old Norwegian language, was completed in 2083. Built by the Euro-African Union, it was a marvel of human achievement and ambition. It was aimed towards a water-rich planet orbiting the star Mingusat, situated within a complex trinary star system, a daunting 26 light-years away.
Ísreikistjarna was to be humankind's first home among the stars. The Stjernevandrer was outfitted with supplies for a 100 year journey through almost completely empty space, powered by a fusion-core reactor for ship maintenance and emergency maneuvering, but relying on 4 antimatter-matter reaction drives to accelerate the starship to .20c - or 20% of the speed of light.
Originally the Stjernevandrer was called the Constellation, Ísreikistjarna was named Galiela. The Constellation was an American-made ship, built by the U.S. in hopes of being the first country to land a colony among the stars. But during the decade of her construction, a new telescope was launched with the exclusive mission of finding as much information about the distant star system as possible; it was then that the science team made a chilling discovery. Galiela was not so much a water planet as it was an ice planet. There was no surface water at all; the entire sphere was wrapped in a layer of ice. Volunteers, although willing to spend the rest of their lives on a one-way trip to a distant star already, began to believe that another trip in the near future might offer a better destination for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and began to resign their seats in droves. A majority of those who were left were from the far north; Alaska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan; and were used to seasons of bitter cold.
Suddenly, the list of potential candidates for Earth's first mission to a new star began to suffer from a lack of qualified volunteers. The program lost support from the government and taxpayers, and was at risk of being shuttered. It was at that point the combined governments of Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Canada stepped in. If Galiela was too cold for the Americans, the half-finished starship was the deal of a lifetime for a group of people used to the cold. The starship Constellation was renamed Stjernevandrer, and Galiela was to be christened Ísreikistjarna by the its first inhabitants.
In 2189, the Stjernevandrer arrived at Ísreikistjarna, and entered into orbit. The inhabitants of the Stjernevandrer had not been idle during their 96 year trip, but had been busy designing and building technology that would help them at their destination. Before they even entered the system, dozens of smaller ships; fully automated, spread out across the Mingusatu System. They were headed for the largest of the asteroids, and their plan was an all-out planetary bombardment and attack on their new home!
In 2192 the first of the asteroids crashed into Ísreikistjarna, giving it a gentle, but noticeable push a few hundred kilometers closer to Mingusat, but more importantly, beginning to break up the ice which reflected most of the heat from its star back into space. Over the next 46 years, a seemingly endless barrage of asteroids smashed into the planet, their violent assault pummeling the surface of the planet, but leaving almost no noticeable trace on the surface besides the great patches of shattered ice; as each asteroid's impact was swallowed up by the planet's liquid ocean, beneath the icy exterior.
In 2238 the final asteroid fell, half a year later, the Stjernevandrer finally landed on the surface of Ísreikistjarna. The planet had begun to heat, and nearly 10% of the planet, near the equator, was now covered in to a cerulean blue ocean. To keep it from re-freezing, a constant guard of satellites wielding
Eventually the planet's equatorial region would heat to 10-20 degrees C, in the day, but still be dangerously cold for humans at -30C during the night. The planet's orbit had been sped up and now had a bit more wobble to it than before, it was now spinning at a rate of 1 revolution in 28 hours.
But the poles were still impossible for all but the most tenacious of explorers; with the temperatures regularly diving to as cold as -140C.
The bottom half of Stjernevandrer descended, its mighty engines making short work of the thin ice in the area. It continued to sink until the top of its habitation ring was underwater, and only the small center cylinder projected from the ice; offering a dock for spacecraft. This center ring is still in use today; but a large and busy spaceport has sprung up around it, above the circle off the habitation module. The ship's occupants; after a total of 155 years, or some 6 generations, finally could leave their home-among-the-stars; and were ready to learn and discover how to live on their new home world.
The first order of business was to expand their living areas; since there were now 528,753 people living on the ship, and more being born every day. This was over 17 times the number they had started with, and exceeded the design capacity of the Stjernevandrer by over 250,000 people! They had long planned for this this event, however. Hundreds of workers descended below the surface to build geothermal tubes to carry up heat from the planet's core where tidal forces warmed the water. They built kotitila, large communal dwellings with an extended family of 30 to 50 people, around these outlets of heat. Residences were often connected to one another by vast networks of tubes as well. The hot water was like electricity for them. It was the most important resource, and they used it for power, to heat their homes and gardens where they grew a small amount of their fresh produce under thick sheets of clear ice that let in the sun.
There were a small number of islands that were formed during the asteroid bombardment. These were mostly rock and ice and not useful for growing food. Consequently, the ocean beneath them became their farms. The interstellar ship had over 100 species of fish and marine cultures. With careful management, colonies of algae were introduced in 2222, before the bombardment had even ceased. By 2230, small invertebrates like shrimp and mussels that thrived in the cold water were introduced in the shallower parts of the ocean.
By 2243 larger fish were being cultivated in farms, although many escaped or were released. The underwater farming was disrupted by the melting of much of the equatorial ice, which caused large movements of giant ice sheets north and south of the equator, (starting in the 2220s, and getting progressively worse until the 2270s, before the climate largely stabilized and most of the stored ice energy near the equator reached equilibrium in the mid-to-late 2300s).