Aster opens its first island permits

For as long as liners have crossed the Reach, Aster has been a world you looked at and did not visit: a blue globe in a wrap of white cloud, its islands strung across the ocean in long, broken lines. That has changed. The islanders of the Sunward Chain have opened their first permits for visitors, two thousand a year and no more, and the first applications are already in.

What has been announced

The permits were approved by the Chain's island council after what one councillor described to us as "a long argument, conducted politely". The quota is fixed at 2,000 visitors a year, counted per person, children included. Stays are capped at twelve days. Visitors will land on Tarrow, the largest island and the only one with a landing field, and may travel by island boat to two neighbours, Sorrel and Quill. The rest of the Chain stays closed.

Nobody is building hotels. Every visitor will stay in an island house, in a guest room let by a family who have agreed to take visitors, with meals at the family table. The council says around ninety households have signed up so far, which is why the quota is what it is.

The reasons for opening, as the islanders put them, are practical. The permit fees will pay for a new desalination plant and a harbour wall on Tarrow. Younger islanders want work that does not mean leaving. And, as the councillor said, "if the Reach is going to come and look at us, we would rather it came to the door."

How to apply

Applications go through the council's permit office on Halcyon Station, in person or by message, during a thirty-day window that opens with each quota year. There is no queue to join and no advantage in applying early: permits are drawn by ballot once the window closes.

1. Apply as a group of up to four. A group is drawn together or not at all.
2. Pay the application fee of 40 marks a person. It is not refunded, whatever the draw.
3. Write a short statement of why you want to come. The council says it reads every one and scores none.
4. Wait for the draw. Results are promised within sixty days of the window closing.
5. If drawn, pay the permit fee of 1,500 marks a person within thirty days, and choose your dates. Most of it goes into the islands' water and harbour fund.

Permits are named and cannot be sold or passed on. Places that are not taken up go back into a second, smaller draw.

What the islanders ask

The council has published a short list of requests. The islanders we spoke to were clear that they are requests in name only.

• Water is rain. Every drop on the Chain is caught from the roofs, and a visitor's share is 60 litres a day. Showers are short; laundry is done by the household.
• The boats are the islanders'. No private craft, and no hired boat without an island skipper.
• Take nothing from the shore or the sea: no shells, no stones, and no fishing except with your hosts.
• Keep the rest day. One day in seven the boats stay in, the shops close and the islands go quiet. Visitors are asked to go quiet too.
• Ask before you photograph anyone, and leave flying cameras at home: they are not allowed.

What we know so far

Very little has been written about the islands by outsiders, and much of what follows comes from the council's own notes. The Chain lies near the equator and is warm all year, with rain most afternoons and a stormy season the islanders call the long blow, when the boats stay in for days at a time and no visitors are received. The islands are low and green, and none takes more than a few hours to walk from end to end. Food is fish, seaweed, root crops and bread, and the islanders are proud of their bread.

Questions remain. The council has not yet named the crossings that permit holders will travel on, nor said whether the quota will grow if the first year goes well. Asked about that, the councillor smiled and said the islands would decide once they had met us. We will report from Tarrow as soon as we have been.