This issue continues our series on the Memphian Sector. Recent events have brought this quiet region attention, since it borders the Tartarus Rim, from which rumors of war and rebellion are presently radiating. For a description of the Dog Track and the Heiratic Province see the previous issue.
The Sickle and the Mesostimonic Province
Irkalla
While Irkalla can be accessed via the Dog Track, it is also the southern terminus of the path known as the Sickle. It’s a small system, centering on a F0 type star with only two planets, both ice giants. The only permanent settlement is a modest transfer station in orbit of Irkalla II with a fuel storage capacity of 50Ktons each of MMH and LD. There are marked routes out of the system to Asmara, Aswan, Ellil, and the Halonite Sector.
Ellil
Ellil is a white dwarf with three planets. Ellil I is a small rocky planet with no atmosphere. The second planet, Nippur, is a large rocky planet. It is quite rich in rarer minerals, but atmosphere is quite thin and very cold, so habitation, industry, and commerce there are entirely underground. Ellil III is a gas giant with sufficient atmospheric hydrides to make gas mining profitable. It supplies about 1K ton each of MMH and LD daily, and the tanks at Nippur can store about 50Ktons of each. There is also a 50m repair slip.
Pass of Storms
The Pass of Storms serves as the southern or coreward gateway into a long, linear area of space bounded on both sides by areas of intense warp instability. To the east is the nearly impenetrable Storm Wall, a band of storms so intense that even the bravest navigators avoid it. To the west lies the Sea of Sorrows; an area steeped in space stories both heroic and tragic from the early days of its exploration right up to the present. Spacers do sometimes navigate this band, but transit are perilous, since navigation is inevitably slower and less efficient and the unpredictable currents have a habit of spitting ships back out in unexpected places, short of fuel and supplies, and breaking up formations, leaving their individual members widely separated and out of contact with one another.
Even the pass itself is tricky, since there are storms blocking it roughly half the time, though the lane markings make navigation somewhat easier, even in those circumstances, roughly halving the chance of significant course deviations.
Enki
RS Ever Stoic approaches Dis in the Enki System. Nissiku is faintly visible to the upper left.
At the north end of the pass the route reaches Enki, a red dwarf with seven planets. While several of these planets were doubtless quite habitable in the distant past, the diminished output of the sun has left all of them, save the very closest, cold and inhospitable.
The first planet, Nissiku, is a typically small rocky planet. It was probably tidally locked and airless at one time, but terraforming in the distant past reintroduced a spin and to give it a breathable atmosphere, making it among the closest known inhabited planets to a system primary. It is the site of an important school teaching both astrogation and astro-engineering, as well as history, philosophy, and interstellar communications. The planet is not heavily populated, but this alone makes it important. Industry there isn’t especially heavy, but it is sufficient to support the school’s orbital laboratory. The orbital station has two slips. The smaller is only 10m, but the larger is 200m in length, making it one of the few stations in the system capable of heavy overhaul on large warships and midsize freighters. Tankage is 150Ktons MMH and 100Ktons LD.
The second planet, Nagbu, is largely ice covered, and probably supplied most of the water for terraforming Nissiku in the ancient past, but today it is uninhabited. The third planet, Dis, is also uninhabited, though it has ruins of archeological interest that might provide clues into the forgotten past of the system if funding is ever available for exploration.
Enki IV is a massive gas giant that provides a second source of heat and energy in the otherwise dim system. Not only is there a small gas mining operation, producing about 1Kton each of MMH and LD, but there are also two inhabited moons; Abzu and Eridu. The first is an ice moon with subsurface seas. There is a domed resort on its surface that is a popular stopover for local and long-distance passenger traffic. The second is home to a small religious site important to the peregrine Tahti.
Enki V, VI, and VII are ice giants of no significance.
Saba
Saba is a bright red giant with six planets. Despite their number, the system isn’t terribly heavily developed. The innermost five planets are rocky worlds. None have any atmosphere, thanks to the strong stellar winds. Saba VI is a modest ringed gas giant with several moons that have been explored for minerals, but there are no permanent settlements on the surface of any of them. There is a small gas mining operation, able to extract several Ktons a week of MMH and LD; essentially enough to stock up a local fueling depot with 20Ktons capacity of each. There are a few mining depots in minor outer system bodies, and there are rumors that the Tahti establish camps there sometimes, but nothing has been confirmed.
Uruk Pass
While not nearly so treacherous as the its coreward cousin, Uruk Pass is nevertheless a difficult passage, being plagued by warp storms roughly one time in three.
Marduk
One of two stars in a binary system, Marduk has three planets; two rocky planets and one gas giant. None have permanent settlements. There are no known resources of any significant value, but there is a small emergency station used by beacon tenders and patrol vessels. The station has tankage for only 6Ktons of LD and 3Ktons of MMH, and no repair facilities.
Uruk
Unlike its companion star, Uruk has some appreciable development. Of the four planets, the second is a small rocky world called Warka with a breathable atmosphere, a temperate climate, and abundant water. There isn’t any substantial industry, but the agriculture is extensive. The orbital station is fairly modest, but has tankage of 20Ktons each of MMH and LD. Uruk III is a gas giant that supplies the MMH and LD for the system’s needs. Uruk IV is a small, frozen world with no significant resources.
Lagash
Lagash is a bright, blue star with three planets. It lies not only on the Sickle, but a small lateral route that gives access to the stars along the Dog Track and beyond.
The innermost planet is a modest rocky world called Nina, surprisingly distant from the primary. There is a breathable atmosphere, but the temperatures are too low for significant agricultural development. The world serves primarily as a gravity well in which spacers can relax for a time and recover. The orbital station is quite small, with tankage only for 10Ktons LD and MMH. There is no gas extraction in the system. Lagash II is an ice giant and Lagash III is a small, frozen rocky world.
Alexandria
While not so rich as Memphis itself, Alexandria is the principal world along the Sickle. Both the inner two rocky worlds are habitable. The first, Pharos, is rather arid, but has enough water to sustain life and some mineral content useful for industrialization, and the second, Pompey, has significant agriculture, the bulk of the system’s inhabitants, and the principal orbital facilities. There is a 100m repair slip, a 50m repair slip, and tankage of 100Ktons each of MMH and LD. The imperial patrol station has facilities for the sector’s two buoy tenders and two small patrol craft.
Alexandria III is an ice giant and Alexandria IV is a small, frozen world.
The Pillars of Hercules
The rimward end of the Sickle is marked by the Pillars of Hercules. The Pillars are a binary pair of stars with one large gas giant orbiting their mutual barycenter. The gas giant has no moons or rings, likely having lost them to the system’s strange tidal forces. For this reason, there is no development in the system. It serves as a navigational fix, but nothing else.
The Saba Subsector
The Saba Subsector has two systems not directly on the Sickle: Nebo and Ishtar’s Star. Neither system is terribly industrialized, but each is settled, and each bears a minor route off the primary trade lane.
Nebo
Nebo is a modest G type star with only two planets. Nebo Prime is an agricultural world with a pleasant climate and the most important university in the Memphian sector, researching subjects as varied as cattle breeding and starship engineering. The orbital station has a branch university specializing in warp navigational theory, and warpspace weather patterns. It has one of the few training programs for freespace navigators in the far galactic north, and possibly one of the best anywhere in human space. (Perhaps only the Tahti and Batrachians have better navigators.)
The orbital station hosts two training sloops and a rescue cutter. There is a 50m repair bay. There is tankage sufficient for 50Ktons each of MMH and LD.
Nebo Secundus is ringed gas giant with a mining operation sufficient to supply local needs and two settled moons.
Ishtar’s Star
A pair of unidentified jump shuttles approach Ishtar IV Ishtar’s Star is a red subdwarf with eight planets. The first four are airless worlds. Ishtar III, the smallest of the four inner planets, has a mining settlement. The orbital station has storage and transfer capabilities, and tankage of 10Ktons of MMH and LD.
Ishtar IV was more extensively settled at one time, and may even have been terraformed in the distant past. There is archeological evidence of second wave colonization, though no usable recordings have been discovered. The absence of atmosphere and presence of a continent sized glass sheet suggests a severe cataclysm might have led to the disappearance of this first settlement. More recent colonists mostly arrived in an initial wave of excitement when the archeological remnants were initially cataloged, but that enthusiasm has largely subsided, and the system is comparatively quiet now. It does host a local religious sect, worshipping a deity they associate with the recovery of lost knowledge. There is a small orbital station with tankage for 10Ktons of MMH and LD.
Ishtar V and VI are ice giants. Ishtar VII and VIII are small ice worlds.
The Helene Pocket
Beyond the Pillars of Hercules lie three systems that might originally have been a part of the Tartarus Rim, but changes in transit space weather patterns have isolated them, leaving them accessible only from the Sickle, so they are now regarded as a part of the Memphian Sector.
Ithaca
Ithaca is a small system with three planets. The innermost planet is the largest settled world. It is principally agricultural, and its climate is almost idyllic. It would doubtless be a resort world if it were not so isolated. There is an orbital station with 20Ktons of bunkerage each of MMH and LD.
Ithaca II is a gas giant with extraction sufficient for local use. Ithaca III is an ice planet.
Mycennae
Mycennae, one of two stars in a broad binary system, has only one planet, a gas giant with a rich mixture of useful isotopes. There are several settled moons, the largest of which has an orbital station with tankage for 30Ktons of MMH and LD.
Troy
The four planets of the Troy system center on a red dwarf. Troy I is a settled, agricultural world. The orbital station has a transfer depot and bunkerage for 20Ktons of MMH and LD. There is a small 20m repair bay.
Troy II and III are gas giants, but extraction is fairly limited. There is some mineral extraction on the moons of Troy III. Troy IV is an ice giant.
. . . . .
It is sincerely hoped by those of us here at Jayne's that these modest entries can help to prevent further strife. We provide military and economic analyses, not to encourage war, but to give those confronting it's shadow a fuller appraisal of its costs and difficulties. Only with a true appreciation of the costs of war can a lasting peace be achieved.
No comments:
Post a Comment