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Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 7, Subector 18

Feb18

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 18-1

This planet is larger than Earth but not amazingly so, and it is dryer than Earth but not horribly so.

What is really notable is how flat it is, with only a small amount of variation between the high and low spots, and how quiet it is.  There is little axial tilt, but enough to make it almost homelike; the tides ride far up on the beaches.

There is civilization here, although they appear to live in low buildings made mostly of wood.  Stone and metal appear in short supply.  

We sent down a polite greeting probe.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 18-2

We were uncertain at first glance if this planet could sustain life.  Its lang masses are almost all at its poles, with only a scattering of small islands like a crooked dotted line between them.  But the southern continent – almost as large as Africa, if considerably closer to round – has greenery and what appears to be some sort of animal life.

We were reluctant to send down a team, but the readings were so good, it was hard to resist.  A small colony might be very happy here.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 18-3

This planet is lightly inhabited – it looks like the equivalent of early Iron-age technology.  We won’t bother them, although we will note to visit every 100 years.

The strange thing here is that the continents and landmasses are bilaterally symmetrical, eerily so – and in sharp contrast, all of their buildings, structures, even their roads are defiantly, aggressively asymmetrical.

We would blame it on some strange trend, but even the ruins we’ve seen share the same lopsided style.

And yet their seas could be drawn with a compass and their mountains with a ruler.

7.18.2

     

     

    Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-17-2

    Feb18

    Explorer Log Planet 7-17-2

    The glitter, it turns out, is biological.

    We landed, and everything was fine for the first two days.  We noticed no dangers in the air, nothing on the surface or the rainwater that would cause us issues.

    We sent Spifio out as out canary, and after two days Spif was glittering.

    The thing is, there’s nothing wrong with Spif yet, not as far as we can tell, except the glitter. And the way words seem to glitter in the air when Spif speaks.

    So far, our filters are holding out.  We’re giving Spif a week to see what happens with the glitter.  

    If only Spif didn’t SPARKLE so much when we said he had to stay outside.

    Planetary D47

    We all sparkle now.

    After five days, we let Spifio back into the enclosure. The only ill effect seemed to be the glitter hanging everywhere, and the animals seemed much more interested in sparkling at Spif than in eating him.

    Turns out the glitter has a pheromone which says “one of us”, except that there’s several different pheromone sets.

    Good thing they sent us down with a splittable pod, because I can’t stand the sight of Spif, Lee, or Garana now and Tellie almost strangled Lee last week.

    Planetary D181

    There was a period of time we will not speak of.

    During that time, several things happened, of course.

    We have narrowed the glitter down to five lines, each with its own pheromone. We’ve also developed a blocker which allows us to tolerate the other pheromones.

    In addition, we have found that a particular combination of the glitters has a healing effect – if you don’t tear yourself apart trying to get the stink off of you.

    This planet is fascinating, but 5 years cannot come soon enough.

    Planetary D203

    Garana has figured it out! It took a few false attempts and seventeen animals in cages – three didn’t survive – but we have found a way to block or replicate the effects of the glitter hormones.

    For the first time in half a year, I hugged my wife. And then we went about the more complicated business of determining how these pheromones work on this planet.

    But there was a lot of hugging.

       

      Tootplanet: Another Viewpoint

      Feb15

      Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 16-4 – another viewpoint

      It had been Slek’s turn on the sky-scope, so it was Slek who saw the spaceship settling above their atmosphere and Slek who noticed all of the readings of a determined scanning. Not the Periln; the instruments read differently, enough that Slek was pretty sure they noticed there were people left on the planet.

      If the Periln had noticed, they would have sent down a cleaning crew.

      This ship… just scanned, scanned again, and left. Slek swore and cursed many of their ancestors and descendants before writing it all down in the log.

       

      Tootplanet: Another Viewpoint

      Feb15

      7-16-3–another viewpoint

      The greeting probe was bland. It spoke in a monotone that seemed to carry no inflection at all.

      Lior(red-phasing-to-blue/greenish tips) listen/watched 3 times but there was nothing of hue or shade. How to understand it, then? Lior took it to the [green-on-the-water-blue place], but even there, they were baffled.

      They began to prepare a reply, shaded as neutrally as possible.Sending it back was easy.  But how to communicate with such BLAND people?

       

       

      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.