Archive | February 2018

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log

Feb15

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 17-1

This planet looks so much like Earth from a distance that I checked all our readings 3 times.

And, indeed, it is inhabited – the continent we had to keep resisting calling Africa shows signs of dense population and industry, as does all of the southern hemisphere.

We caught a few video transmissions, and they seem remarkably humanoid, although with little-to-no cold tolerance.

We sent three polite greeting probes and took more photos than was strictly necessary.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 17-2

On the far side of Sub17 we found a smallish planet teeming with life and sparkling with silver speckles.

The mountains, the water, even the animals seemed to glitter, and much of the plant life is a silvery-drey.

There were more animals on this planet than we had ever seen in one place, but no signs of civilization.

We sent down a team with a well-armored settlement pod.  Some of those animals were definitely carnivores.

7.17.2

     

     

    Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-14-2

    Feb15

    Explorer Log Planet 7-14-2

    The landmasses here are small, but that makes sense: the planet is small.  By all rights, it shouldn’t have a breathable atmosphere, but it does, and we will take that.

    We landed on a continent that is about twenty square miles in a rough comma shape, and in five days have explored much of it.  It’s separated at the tip by a channel we can almost jump across to another landmass of similar size, and there is even a lake about an acre across.

    I keep expecting to discover this is a practical joke.

    Planetary Date 26

    We’ve been here nearly a month and I am fairly sure nothing is a joke.

    We’ve been mapping this as seriously as if we think it will take us our entire tenure, and we continue to find interesting anomalies.

    There was the chain of volcanoes, for instance.

    Or the tiger-like creature that came up to our knees but was very sharp and had not one but two rows of teeth.

    It might be a tiny planet, but it’s still trying to kill us.

    Planetary Date 92

    The short days and nights on this planet are a little distressing, but it is to be expected on a planet this small.

    We have cataloged no fewer than 100 species of animal and 50 plants, although many of them are variations on themes.

    The pocket tiger has a cousin, a pocket wolf.  This one is even more violent, albeit smaller.

    And did I mention the hawks?  These things are like rocs to this planet, despite being only a little larger than an Earth eagle.

    Our habitation is steel-reinforced and cement-roofed.  I’m still worried about the two pregnant women.  Around here, the birds might really steal the baby.

    Planetary Date 192

    We’ve moved our settlement to the other side of the planet, a trip that took us three days and ended up with us nestled on the side of the tallest mountain here.  

    We’ve made book-standard accommodations to our habitat, including blasting a cave in the mountain for storage, but considering the footprint of this place, we are trying to limit out modifications.

    Here, we are better protected from the small but deadly animals, and we have set up a pen in which to breed some of the more tame herbivores.

    Planetary Date 292

    We’ve moved our settlement to the other side of the planet, a trip that took us three days and ended up with us nestled on the side of the tallest mountain here.  

    We’ve made book-standard accommodations to our habitat, including blasting a cave in the mountain for storage, but considering the footprint of this place, we are trying to limit out modifications.

    Here, we are better protected from the small but deadly animals, and we have set up a pen in which to breed some of the tamer herbivores.

    The planet might be trying to kill us, but it’s also feeding us very nicely.

     

    Tootplanet: Captain’s Log

    Feb15

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 14

    We came out of superspace almost in front of this planet, and from the looks of it, we were not the only ones who had.  Circling the planet, we counted at least ten landing stations, flying all sorts of colors, in all sorts of styles.  None looked like Home, but several looked like we could probably fit in with minimal effort.

    We made a note to visit on the way back. Sailors always enjoy a bit of shore leave, after all.

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 14

    We explored more of this sub-section than we’d originally intended, but it was surprising to find so many uninhabited planets so close to what we’re calling the Spaceport planet.  Or maybe not: nobody wants the campsite next to the bathroom, after all.

    Three long days’ plainspace travel from Spaceport, we found a small but entirely habitable planet. And by small I mean tiny: This thing is almost approaching Little Prince status.

    Nevertheless, we sent down a small team.  If they have not explored the entire planet by the time we return, I will be surprised and disappointed.

     

    Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 7, Subector 16

    Feb14

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub.16-1

    We almost missed this planet, hidden as it was behind its much larger brother-planet.  The brother was barren, a frozen gas giant. The smaller sibling we resisted the urge to name Eden, if only because fiction has told us that’s a way to jinx it.

    Its landmasses are small, barely bigger than islands, but many of them are so close together you can hop from one to the next.

    We sent down several probes, and will come back with a team on our return.

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 16-2

    This planet, with its green seas and its golden lands, would look appealing if not for the strange rambling line of ruins.  It is as if whenever something awful happens, the entire – if small – civilization just moves.

    At least, the oldest ruins were crumbled almost to nothing, while the newest ones were quite recent, and they trailed in a line across the continent.

    There is a lot of unruined land, but they appear something almost civilized, so we moved on.

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 16-3

    We haven’t left this subsector yet: if any of the inhabited planets manage to develop space travel, they will find they have many, many neighbors.

    At first, I thought this planet was another like 7-12-1, smeared in brilliant color, but a closer look revealed that 90% of the color is rooftops!

    Almost the entire planet – poles, equator, everything – is covered in buildings, all of them painted. Spectrography reveals that there are colors there we can’t even see.

    We sent a greeting probe.  

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 16-yet still

    This planet, so close to an asteroid belt that we nearly missed it, is fascinating.  It was clearly very densely populated at one point – buildings cover almost every piece of land on its two largest continents, and trail into the water on what look like manufactured islands.

    And the tops of nearly all the buildings are covered in dense greenery and grains.

    Yet we show almost no life signs – a total of 312, scattered around the planet in groups of 3-10.

    What happened here? Where did everyone go?

    7.16.4

    7.16.3

    Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-12-1

    Feb11

    We have protective lenses, & I’m not sure that will be enough. The land practically shines with color, although Deno, who is colorblind, says that the patterns within the colors are quite beautiful.

    There are the cutest little puffball creatures here, in a sort of neon lavender color, as well as something similar but white-and-green-striped.  The problem is, the smaller of the lavender puffballs are venomous, and the larger ones, it turns out, are poisonous.

    On the other hand, the green-and-white-striped ones, maybe the size of a terrier, are quite friendly and so far have not harmed anyone in the least.

    This planet may hurt our eyes, but so far it’s been quite entertaining.

    Planetary D17

    The puffballs – the lavender ones – are a bit of a problem.  We solve most of that by putting in a low fence around everything, since they cannot seem to climb too high.

    Sadly, these leaves out the green-and-white ones as well, and the new ones Deno found, blue and yellow and almost a football size and shape.

    So now we have a puffball pen where we keep the ones we like. We’ve discovered that the little blue/yellow ones are quite nice for fur, and Deno is already planning a breeding program.

    In the meantime, Felin is working on some food products with the translucent but still vivid succulent-like plants we found, the ones with fronds almost like fennel.  They taste like tofu.  Processed, they taste… more like tofu.

    Lucky for us we brought food with us.

    Planetary Date 132

    We’ve been breeding Puffballs.

    The Dawn (blue/yellow) Puffs have a gestation period of 1/15 of the local year, litters of 5-7 pea-sized pufflings, and, like all puffs, appear to have either three or four genders. I challenge you to sex something that looks like a pom-pom with sharp teeth on one end, a prehensile tail on the other, and claws in between.

    They aren’t as domesticated as the Vernal Puffs (Green/white) and not half as friendly, but they do make really nice mittens.

    The Vernals, on the other hand, have turned out to be scent hounds, and THEY have found us something that, blessing of blessings, does not taste like tofu.

    Now if only they could find us sugar. Or coffee.

    Planetary Date 232

    The problem with breeding puffballs is, as it turns out, they have a high rate of mutation.

    Our mitten-puffs, the Dawn line, produced a green-&-cyan thing that seemed to be two puffs together and ate everything in sight – thank heavens we have no children here yet!  It would not eat other mitten-pufffs if there was anything else available, but that seemed to be its only qualm.

    On the other hand, the Vernal puffs produced a whole litter of mouthless red abominations that appear to SNORT their food in through giant nostrils.

    On the plus side, we’ve found a sugar plant. And it turns out the abominations taste great with a sugar glaze.

     

     

    Tootplanet: Captain’s Log

    Feb11

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 12

    This planet… is brilliant.

    I mean that in a visual brightness sense, as well as in a pleased-with-the-landing sense.  The planet is nearly neon, the land green but the sort of green you expect to be advertising in a bar, the water actually pink.  The land appears to be one giant landmass that swooshes and swirls across the planet.

    It makes me giggle to look at it.

    I hope Team 4 can stop giggling long enough to explore.

     

    Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-11-1

    Feb11

    We landed on the lowest part of the main landmass we could manage.  From there, we have been sending out instruments and probes.

    The sea has a smell to it, almost like a cocktail at the wrong sort of party. But it is lovely, crystal and blue.

    What arable land there is is crowded with plant life – meadows and little forests running in stripes from the mountains almost to the sea, small animals skittering everywhere.  Nothing touches the sea, not even the amphibian-like creatures.

    We’ve set up camp beyond the high water mark, just in case. Continue reading →

    Tootplanet: Captain’s Log

    Feb11

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 11

    The first planet we encountered in Subsection 11 nearly took our breaths away, all of us in the cockpit.  The mountains!  This planet had a mountain ridge that ran from pole to pole, intersected by narrow waterways several times.  From the mountains land seemed to trickle down towards the ocean like a skirt trailing in the water, and little islands rose up like baubles from the navy-blue seas.

    We sent Team 3 to see what they could.

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 11

    We were not expecting a planet in this area, as all instruments showed it full of nothing bigger than asteroids. Instead we found a wild, erratic solar system.

    Most notable to us was an M-class planet with a flat elliptical orbit that seemed to house three vastly different civilizations. The planet was mostly water, and much of that occupied with floating and submerged structures, but on two small land masses, huge edifices filled the land.

    7.11.1

     

     

    Tootplanet: Another Viewpoint

    Feb11

    Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 10 — another viewpoint

    Or-en-al-en studied the death-thing unfolded in front of ren. It was not offering any threat & its smells were neutral, but it had fallen with great force and damaged the ground-fronds. If there had been a person standing there, or a drag-beast…!

    The death-thing unfolded slowly and hissed and clacked.  It repeated its hisses in several other tones.  Or-en-al-en hissed back at it, attempting to imitate its tone.  Was it threatening ren?  Was it offering proposition (the same thing, from a death-thing).  

    The death-thing splurtled.  “Greetings.”

    Or-en-al-en jumped backwards.

    Or-en-al-en continued

    It had been a half-red-moon and a full-blue-moon since Or-en-al-en had found the death-thing.  Ren had taken it to the Smart Ones & they in turn had taken it to the Smartest Ones & they, in turn, had taken it to the Ladies.

    The Ladies had spoken to the death-thing and it had spoken back.  It was from hyu-men, from Eff-Es-Es-An-Je-loo, from Fed-ray-shun.  It explained that it was here to say hello.

    Why it was a death thing to say hello, nobody could agree.  Perhaps this Fed-ray-shun wished a war?

    The Ladies had decided it was not time for war. Yet. Or-en-al-en was beginning to wish ren had ignored the death-thing.