Saturday, February 11, 2023

Survey II: The Border Stars

 A publicly available survey of the three "border" stars that lie within the Wilderness within one jump from Starbase Cherryh. These are the "jumping off" points for expeditions deeper into the Wilderness sector. Stars in the Wilderness sector are currently designated WD-x. This is subject to change according to the imperial interstellar surveyors, but holds for the moment. The three nearest stars therefore are designated WD-1, WD-2, and WD-3 (unsurprisingly).


WD-1
A white star. White stars don't always have planets, but when they do the planets tend to be inhospitable or irradiated or both, but high in mineral riches. WD-1 has four planets in orbit: an irradiated inner ball of rock, a barren world rich in the minerals, metals, and rare metals that drive high tech industries, a gas giant with rich moons and greek and trojan asteroids, and a distant terrestrial world of dim light and dimmer mineral prospects.

As its numbering might suggest, this has been the star most visited by early ventures into the Wilderness, and has produced decent mining-profits for those who have laid claims there. Unfortunately, as more people flock to Cherryh Station with high hopes, fewer and fewer valuable claims are to be had in WD-1 system, and so while some are looking to explore deeper into the territory for other unexploited sinks of resources, unscrupulous prospectors may have their eyes on their fellows' territories ...


WD-2
A red star. Red stars have no planets more often than not, though WD-2 is an exception to this. It is not an exception to the other generality that those planets that orbit red stars tend to be both minerally poor and inhospitable to Earth-type life.

WD-2 holds two small planets in its orbit, the outer world a far-flung ball of ice and rock perhaps the size and density of Earth's moon. The inner world is more interesting in that, though it is largely a desert world, it does possess enough gravity and atmosphere to have developed advanced life. Though no "Arrakis" to be possessed of immense treasure guarded by terrible dragons, still the arid world and its life are certainly of value to xenobiologists near and far.


WD-3 -- Sadak
An orange star, and thus both likely to have planets, and likely that at least some of those planets harbor conditions conducive to Earth-type life. WD-3 comes through in both regards, holding three worlds in its orbit, the third of which is a great ocean world, minerally poor (or perhaps only poorly investigated), but teeming with life--including a native and sapient species of pinniped-like creatures.

A major culture among these creatures (and the ones surveyors initially made contact with) call the world Sadak and themselves Saath. Most cultures are reported to be in an approximate bronze or iron-age, their civilizational development hampered by lack of material and lack of any need to centralize into cities or states. Anyone dealing with them should be cautioned that this does not mean that they're stupid or unclever, just unsophisticated in certain means of organization.

The empire has issued an interdict around the world Sadak until such time as the boule can reach a decision as to how to proceed with contact--but this far out from the imperial center, we all know how fictitious/theoretical that interdict really is.

There are two other inner worlds orbiting closer to their orange primary, and both are small, irradiated, and not possessed of any especially rich mineral deposits according to current survey data.


Further Destinations
There are seven stars within a distance of two jumps from these three "border" stars. Three within reach of WD-1, four within reach of WD-2, and two within reach of WD-3 (these numbers include overlaps). It is probable that others from the empire have at least ventured into the edges of some of these systems, but a lot of initial interest in the Wilderness has focused on the three closest "border" stars, and nothing is publicly known about the seven next-nearest neighbors.


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