Carabis Green

Carabis Green‏‎

Shattered world - former gardenworld GWC 2A - Originally surveyed by the UES Sorrom

At first, the Bureau of Colonist Affairs believed the survey branch of the Explorer corps made a mistake and perhaps reported the wrong coordinates, which would have been the very first such mistake in the Explorer Corps history. A rare and beautiful garden world turned into a shattered world with a destabilized crust, magma-spewing lava craters, clouds of poisonous gas and a sky darkened by ash clouds in less than five years from its initial discovery to the arrival of the BoCA team. Several checks on data and the local stars unique signature, however, confirmed that this indeed was Carabis Green.

Planet claimed by the Ypeherix

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Almost 75,000 light years distant in the Spinward sector and on the surface of Carabis Green, the third planet in an only recently surveyed star system. Paula sat at the main table of the habitat module; Paula Curiosity was very proud of her very old Martian name. Her ancestors were among the very first colonists that came to the fourth planet of the Sol system. Mars had been the very first planet humans colonized, true Luna came first, but Earth's moon wasn't a planet. That Venus started its first colonies only a week later was insignificant of course, but not to Martians or Venusians even after almost three thousand years. She was born less than a thousand meters from where her distant ancestors found the original Curiosity rover. This relic of the 21st was the reason the farm established nearby was called the Curiosity farm. The farm grew into a city and her family was only one of the many hundred with the same last name, but it still connected her with the distant past and gave her a sense of belonging. She sipped her coffee and leaned forward to take a peek out the round viewport. Beyond the viewport and the thick walls of this Union science habitat, a hellish environment of dark cracked and fissured volcanic rock and bright glowing magma flows. The research outpost was located just five hundred meters distant to a cauldron of bubbling magma. This huge puddle of molten rock of was just one of many such volcanic craters dotting the entire surface of this planet. This was planet Carabis Green. It had been discovered only five years ago by the UES Sorrom just past the fringes of established Union Space on this side of the galaxy and had been reported as a Class A Type one garden world with extensive forests and jungles, temperate climate and a biosphere compatible with most carbon-based NiOx breathers and no sentient life encountered. Garden worlds of this character were rare gems and BoCA send an assessment team to confirm the findings and make a more detailed survey to clear the planet for colonization. All they found was this hellish place. At first, the Bureau of Colonist Affairs believed the survey branch of the Explorer corps made a mistake and perhaps reported the wrong coordinates, which would have been the very first such mistake in the Explorer Corps history. A rare and beautiful garden world turned into a shattered world with a destabilized crust, magma-spewing lava craters, clouds of poisonous gas and a sky darkened by ash clouds in less than five years from its initial discovery to the arrival of the BoCA team. Several checks on data and the local stars unique signature, however, confirmed that this indeed was Carabis Green. There was no apparent reason or clear scientific explanation why this happened. The BoCA assessment team filed their report declared the planet suitable for Takkians, Elor and mining operations, reclassified it as Class X and went on to the next planet. Now, this would be pretty much the end of this story but the BoCA team reported the same drastic change on three other worlds in the same region of space. This was no longer a mildly interesting anomaly but a pattern. Given that the same thing happened on worlds in different solar systems light years apart natural reasons could almost be ruled out. The matter was set on high priority and the Science Council of the Assembly decided to task the Science Corps to have a closer look It found 11 such worlds so far. Four of them were known to have indigenous sentient life, on pre-industrial tech levels. For this reason, contact had not been made. Eleven garden worlds, destroyed within twenty years and an area of about 50 light years, reduced the possibility of natural causes to almost nil. Paula turned away from the viewport and the hellish vista it provided and gave her attention to Grorr the Takkian who just entered the common room of the outpost. “Good morning Paula, the silicone being squeezed in the trumpet-like voice all Takkians had in common. ”You are up early today.” “I haven't really been to bed. I was up all night analyzing the samples you and Krio collected.” Grorr opened a storage locker and retrieved a shiny box and poured a handful of copper pellets into a bowl and said to her while he popped a few into his nourishment mouth. ”And what did you find? I mean spending all night of them you should know those specimen on a first name basis.” “Very funny Grorr,” she said with a slightly sarcastic tone. She actually could hear the faint hissing sound as the Copper pellets dissolved in the strong acid soup in Grorr's digestive tract and saw a puff of greenish smoke escape through his nourishment mouth as he popped a few more. She held up one of the specimens. ”The pieces contain Amphibole structures .” “So? Components of my body do and so are many rock types like granite for example. Nothing unexpected near a volcano.” “Indeed they are not, but their composition and arrangement is almost exactly like yours and also comparable to Takian and even similar to Lyharms.” Grorr forgot to consume the next Copper pellet and came closer to look over the results of her analysis. "You are right.” “What made me spend all night is me combining the pieces to reconstruct what the object looked like before it was broken.” She activated a three-dimensional representation between them. Grorr almost dropped its bowl. ”By the singing Conck, that looks almost like a Takk nodule, just a whole lot bigger and hollow like an egg.” “I am sure there was something in that egg.” Her Takkian friend and colleague said. "No, that you mention it, I have seen hundreds of these fragment on every site.”