Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2404 Standard EditionStrange and Unusual Inhabited Worlds
Wild Space
Gartner Sector
POICTESME
Class: M
Surface gravity: 0.99 G
Primary star: Gartner's Trisystem Alpha (K9)
Moons: None
Capital: Home Fleet, Confederate Freespacers Alliance
Principal City: Storisende Dock (pop. approx. 14,000)
Spaceport facilities: Minimal, cost High, quality Low
During the chaos which marked the birth of the United Federation of Planets and the death-throes of the impotent United Galactica, a Galactica scoutship under the command of Captain Genji Gartner catalogued the worlds of a loose trinary star system , three G and K type stars orbiting a common center of gravity in an orbit roughly four light-years in diameter. A fan of ancient Earth romantic literature and poetry, he named the worlds of one star for characters from the works of James Branch Cabell, the second from Spenser's Faerie Queene, and the third from the works of Rabelais. Although several worlds were of the proper size and athmospheric density for life, none of them were judged to be capable of supporting life without significant terraforming. Although the worlds were all notably rich in mineral wealth, the extreme distance from the galactic core made settlement unfeasible.
In the aftermath following the Corporate Wars, the Confederate Freespacers Alliance laid claim to the Trisystem for asteroid mining rights. With the influence of the Salusians and the WDF on their side, the claim was granted swiftly and without conditions, and in 2390 a fleet of mining and processing ships was dispatched by RebelTech Industries to begin exploitation of the Alpha system.
The details of what they discovered- and what the archaeology team which followed discovered- have been kept dead secret by a conspiracy headed by no less personages than GENOM's then-Enigma Sector chief Lawrence Mann, the CFMF's then-commander Admiral Kristan Overstreet, and Admirals Megazone and Benjamin Hutchins of the WDF, among others. Not even the highest officials in the Federation have been able to crack the secrecy which cloaks the Trisystem, much ess discover what goodies the Trisystem holds.
What the public was allowed to know was explosive enough: Poictesme, third world in the Alpha system, was borderline inhabitable, with plant and minimal animal life present. More to the point, Poictesme- and nine other non-M class worlds in the Trisystem- had been inhabited before, and in great numbers, by the Atlantean Empire.
Inhabited doesn't even do justice to the vast amount of artifacts littering the worlds of the Trisystem. Archaeologists report that Poictesme was the originally Andesto, the main advance military base in the Atlanteans' recurrent wars against the Santovasku Empire. Insofar as the scientists could tell, in the end Poictesme surrendered without a fight, and the Santovasku either slew or evacuated all its inhabitants and left all the Atlantean equipment in place, intact, sealed against time and the elements. This equipment -still- remains, most of it not only intact but ready for use, including Atlantean vehicles, hyperdrive ships, weapons, uniforms, and medicines.
In order to prevent anyone from taking over the find, the Freespacers placed a hyperdrive in the middle of their main landing field and commissioned the planet CFA Poictesme in order to evade their own constitution's prohibition on claiming any inhabitable planets. The court cases this brought up are still ongoing, with no end in sight. A political party has even been formed within the Freespacer nation to abolish the legal fiction and either amend away the constitutional prohibition or establish Poictesme as an independent Federation colony world. A coalition of schools, corporations, and governments within the Federation is currently seeking any pretext to overturn the Freespacer grant and annex the Trisystem as part of the Outer Rim Territories.
Access to the Trisystem is rather severely restricted. The CFMF maintains nothing less than one full carrier task force, sometimes two or three, in the Trisystem, based on Poictesme; they are joined by a rotating and uncertain number of GENOM MilArm and WDF Tactical Fleet ships. Ships visiting the Trisystem are guided directly to and from Poictesme, with no detours allowed. Visitors are searched both arriving and departing to insure that no artifacts are stolen or tampered with.
Obviously the Trisystem does not welcome hitchhikers, but jobs can be found as asteroid miner (the Freespacers aren't neglecting the resources), assistant to an archaeologist, or in the many support services for the large military presence in the Trisystem. Casual hitching, however, is very difficult, and although a lot of people would like their own Atlantean interstellar transport, stealing one is NOT recommended.
Noteworthy planets in the Trisystem:
CFA Poictesme (Alpha Gartner II) - The only class M world in the Trisystem, Poictesme's arable land is limited to coastal areas and a few well-watered valleys and dells. Most of the planet is desert or volcanic mountains and craters. The arable land around the one permanent city, Storisende, is well-farmed to produce foodstuffs for CFMF food rations. Poictesme is also noteworthy for having the highest concentration of Atlantean ruins and artifacts, having served as the command center world for the Atlantean front lines against the Santovasku.
Koshchei (Alpha Gartner IV) - Orbiting in an eccentric angle from the other worlds in the Alpha system, Koshchei is considered a rogue planet captured by the Alpha system after some ancient catastrophe. Although roughly the same size as Mars, its gravity is almost 1 G; only traces of a long-lost rocky crust remain over a cold, dead world of nearly solid iron and other metals. Known as the Rust Planet, its primarily carbon dioxide athmosphere concealed over a dozen lost cities from Gartner's scoutship. Koshchei served as the shipbuilding center of the Trisystem during Atlantean times.
Panurge (Gamma Gartner III) - A barren world, primarily silicate in composition, Panurge contains several factories which archaeologists guess were computer fabrication and assembly plants.
Other formerly inhabited non-class-M worlds in the Trisystem:
Jurgen (Alpha Gartner III)
Horvendile (Alpha Gartner V)
Britomart (Beta Gartner III)
Calidore (Beta Gartner IV)
Pantagruel (Gamma Gartner VI, gas giant, moons 7, 9 and 10)
All of these worlds were used in miscellaneous mining and manufacturing, and all are uninhabitable without pressure suits and habitats. None of them were as extensively exploited as Poictesme, Koshchei or Panurge.
Access to any of the above named worlds, except Poictesme, is strictly prohibited by the Freespacer government; people attempting to smuggle things or people in and out should be warned that they'll be watched by a space force expert in all the smuggling tricks ever devised.
Sidebar: POICTESME BRANDY
A new addition to the list of potables gracing the palates of the Federation's wealthy, the first bottles of brandy distilled from a melon native to Poictesme hit the markets with a bang (and a hiccup) in 2398. The small supply of the beverage makes each bottle incredibly expensive in the Core Systems... which is ironic, because originally Poictesme brandy was asteroid-miner hooch, and even today it is relatively cheap on the world of its making.
Poictesme's infant alcohol industry also sports a small number of inferior melon-wines which have negligible resale value on other worlds. The brandy is the one general export Poictesme has which is not strictly controlled by either the government or by RebelTech Industries. Enterprising hitchhikers have occasionally made some good money buying a case or two of brandy 'for the road,' as it were... but a great many more have been unable to resist the rich, smooth taste and the ninety proof.
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Redneck (guess who scored a cheap copy of The Cosmic Computer yesterday? }:-{D )