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that are inhabited, based on their energy signatures.
The main inhabited world in the system is the third. That is not very surprising since the third planet is
most often the temperate one in G-Class systems with dwarf primaries like Orpheus or Sol. From our
long-range scans, it appears that the third planet is definitely Earth-like. That is a lucky break for us. It
means we will likely be able to visit with no more protection than suntan lotion or possibly a heavy winter
coat.
A hand went up in the second row. It was one of the project scientists, Dr. Roonavong.
Yes, Padhil?
You say you cannot be sure that you located all of the system s planets, yet our scouts found the
stargate. Since it is infinitely smaller than a planet, how did they manage?
That turned out to be the easy part. BothColumbus andMagellan detected a gravity wave shortly after
breakout and were able to triangulate the position. In fact& Thompson reached for the holotank
controls, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
A moment please, Doctor! Dan Landon said. The commander regarded the audience with the serious
expression he reserved for chewing out hapless crewmembers. Ladies and gentlemen! I appreciate your
curiosity about what Captains Heinrich and Erickson discovered. However, we have a great deal of
information to impart today and we do not want to become distracted. Please hold your questions until
the proper time and allow the presenters to get through their reports first. Thank you.
If Padhil Roonavong noticed that he was being chastised for interrupting, he showed no sign. After a few
seconds, Thompson continued.
Now, then, having located the planets, we were able to eavesdrop quite extensively on the system
inhabitants. I am happy to report that the two ships ersatz Broan communications gear worked
flawlessly. Our compatriots recorded voice, video, and data signals and analyzed those they could on the
spot. The rest they brought back to have you specialists take a crack at them.
I can tell you that Orpheans have six tentacle-like grasping members encircling the upper portion of their
torso about where their necks should be and their heads are immobile. They make up for this with six
eyes, each spaced equidistant around the full circle, giving them omni-directional vision. They are tripeds
who move with a twirling motion, sort of like a Whirling Dervish. They do not appear to be equipped to
sit.
Here, then, is an Orphean.
The holoscreen cleared to show an alien figure. The being s skin was vaguely reptillian. He was pale gray
and hairless, with a bullet-shaped head surmounted by six protruding orbs. The being was built on the
hexagonal plan, with six eyes, six tentacles, and tripod legs.
The expedition s instruments picked up hundreds of hours of communications, much of it in a language
that we could not identify. We have enough intercepts in the Broan trade tongue; however, to confirm
that this is indeed a world of the Sovereignty.
We will have an astronomy session following this general briefing. It will take place in the astronomy
group s spaces in Compartment B7, Corridor 9. I would now like to turn you over to Captain Erickson,
who will describe the details of the scouting expedition.
#
The briefing lasted more than three hours. Captain Erickson took one-third of that time to describe the
recent expedition. He related howColumbus andMagellan had dropped sublight well beyond the orbit
of the system s most distant planet, and near the inner boundary of Orpheus s Oort cloud.
The Oort cloud is a standard feature of every star system. It contains the excess material left when the
primordial cloud of gas and dust collapsed to form the star and its planets. The Oort cloud is the source
of a system s comets. Literally hundreds of billions of nascent balls of rock and ice fall constantly inward,
but at a velocity so low that they will never reach the star that is pulling them down. They wait with infinite
patience for something to disturb their orbits, and when that happens, comets by the thousands are sent
hurtling into the inner star system. There a few of them encounter planets, and eventually collide with
them, bringing death and destruction to entire biospheres. Sol s Oort cloud sends a storm of comets
sunward every 26 million years or so. It was a comet storm that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago,
and another that murdered the trilobites.
However, the Oort cloud also represented safety for Earth s starships. It was unlikely that the Orpheans
had a space watch system that reached as far as their Oort cloud, but if they did, it would be next to
impossible to pick up two starships against such a cluttered backdrop.
Erickson described the excitement when a gravity wave strong enough to rattle cups in cupboards swept
through the two starships within a day of their arrival. Triangulating the jump wave, they easily
backtracked to Orpheus s stargate, and from there, to the third planet. Then, with Orpheus s ecliptic
identified, they had found five other worlds in only a single day. Two of those worlds were Jupiter-class
giants.
That jump wave was a lucky break for us, Captain Erickson told the rapt audience. It cut our mission
time by more than a month.
Close analysis of the energy emissions of each of the five worlds proved that they were inhabited, or in
the case of the two gas giants, that their moon systems were. That was hardly surprising considering that
starships had been entering and leaving the system for at least three hundred years.
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