Before we get to what was on the other side of the rabbit hole, let's answer a few questions:
The gateway's control system is closer to what we'd call an expert system than a true AI. It's not sapient, and it probably isn't all that sentient either. It runs a bunch of very simple programs, designed to keep the gate from falling out of orbit and into things, and to activate the wormhole when queried.
As for the second question... the photo of Tannhauser was sent in an email to various smart people back around Sol a day or so after the initial discovery. The email read something like this:
Subject: Thinking of you...
Having wonderful time, wish you were here. Found this thing, which is very old, powered and we have no idea what it's supposed to do. Instrument readings are attached. Have fun!
--Mal
[size=smaller]Well... kinda, yeah.[/size]
Skidbladnir's a pretty good name, so let's go with that.
Research station, yes, fleet probably not (that's a lot of resources to divert from Sol at a point when there's not a lot of ships capable of making the trip), classified no.
*makes note of Serge*
The Soviets wouldn't classify something this big, simply because a) it's a big dumb object in a star system ~18 light years away that's been there for umpty-thousand years not causing any problems, and b) the Soviets by themselves don't have the manpower or the brainpower (Dee nonwithstanding) to really explore/exploit the gate. The final analysis is, it's better to crowdsource the knowledge and maybe reverse-engineer the thing in 50-100 years, instead of trying to keep it quiet, never figure the damn thing out and then get nailed by a diplomatic incident when somebody else stumbles upon Tannhauser or another similar stargate.
Heh. Heh heh heh.
Allright, enough answers. Let's get to what you're really here for.
The Zeta 1 Reticulli system
The Zeta 1 Reticulli system (Zeta1 for short) consists of nine IAU-standard planets, a debris belt between planets six and seven, an asteroid belt between planets four and five, plus the usual assortment of dwarfs, comets and other out-system debris. Navigation through the outer debris belt is slightly trickier than normal outer system navigation around Sol, and routes charting above the local ecliptic are recommended. The star's Cochrane line lies at 38 AU, though this may be disrupted by the outermost planet.
The system was first surveyed by the Sozvezdie Soviet Deep Space Exploration Force in 2013, as a consequence of discovering and activating the Tannhauser Gate stargate in the Delta Pavonis system.
Elemmire
Elemmire is a small Mercury-type planet with a dense iron core and not much else to speak of.
Earendil
A warm terrestrial world covered almost entirely by deep ocean, Earendil resembles in some ways the popular conception of Venus before the beginning of the space age. It would probably be considered a paradise save for the extremely dense atmosphere consisting of mostly nitrogen and helium with only 3% free oxygen.
Interestingly enough, at 4.1 bar (the rough atmospheric pressure at sea level on Earendil) the mixture of nitrogen, helium and oxygen present in the atmosphere is breathable by humans and other Earth-adapted life. It's not a pleasant experience by any means, but it is doable. To date, however, this remains a largely theoretical exercise, since nobody really wants to try it.
![[Image: earendil.th.png]](http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/9057/earendil.th.png)
Earendil's thin and extensive cloud cover hides a world of rain and light.
Arda
Arda is a very Earthlike world. Slightly larger but not as dense as Earth and roughly the same water/land ratio, the planet supports a robust biosphere with abundant plant and animal life everywhere.
Valinor
Valinor is taken as a sign that somebody has been tampering with the Zeta1 system, and it's not hard to see why. Valinor is the only moon of Arda, and by rights should be a dead rocky world a little smaller than Luna. However, when Serge first arrived in the system, it discovered a green and pleasant moon with rolling grasslands and warm seas.
According to everything known about planetology, something like Valinor cannot happen naturally. A moon the size of Valinor doesn't have the mass necessary to maintain a core hot enough to generate a magnetic field, nor is that mass enough to hold onto volatiles like free oxygen, nitrogen and water. And research into Valinor bears this out – the moon was terraformed within the last 30,000 years, given an artificial magnetosphere though a process similar to the Xavier Protocol satellites used by the Martian Terraforming Project, and populated with lifeforms from ArdaAccording to genetic comparison research done on samples provided to the Vesta Institute.. Who did this, and why, remain a mystery. No signs of indigenous intelligent life or extraterrestrial colonization were found on Arda, Valinor nor any of the other planets in the Zeta1 system. The current hypothesis suggests that the system was discovered and then terraformed by automated probes, which upon completion of their work departed for another system.
![[Image: afargreencountryunderas.th.png]](http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8476/afargreencountryunderas.th.png)
Even after terraforming and centuries of erosion, Valinor's old lunar surface can be seen in the shorelines and deep crater lakes.
Night's Door
The companion to Tannhauser Gate, the artificial wormhole aperture holds position at the L1 point between Arda and Valinor. It appears to be identical in structure to the one in Delta Pavonis, with the same mixture of metal, transuranics and inert handwavium.
Interestingly enough, 'handshaking' with the control system inside Night's Door revealed a more complex system than the one inside Tannahuser. Soviet research suggests that Night's Door may be able to connect to other apertures than just Tannhauser. Research is still continuing.
Carnil
The last of the inhabitable worlds in the Zeta1 system. Carnil is largely Earthlike, covered with large shallow oceans and extensive mountain ranges. Unlike Earendil, Arda and Valinor, life on Carnil hasn't really developed past the algae-and-fish stage; the continental masses are largely uncolonized, while the oceans have extensive biospheres based on subsurface mats of kelplike plants.
![[Image: carnil.th.png]](http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4238/carnil.th.png)
Carnil's oceans are barely 1000m deep at their deepest point.
Alcarinque
The largest gas giant in the Zeta1 system, Alcarinque is a pretty average Jupiter-type world, notable only by its ring system, which is larger and more extensive than Saturn's.
Lumbar
Another gas giant, again nothing really exciting about it.
Nenar
A Neptunian ice dwarf with a larger than normal number of moons for a planet of it's mass, but otherwise nothing special in composition.
Lunil
Another ice dwarf with nothing particularly special about it.
Morgoth
Last of the ice dwarfs in the Zeta1 system, and the smallest of the three. Has one moon (Sauron) that gets enough tidal energy from Morgoth to have extensive volcanic activity on the surface, rasing the local temperature to above the freezing point.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
HRogge Wrote:Is the control system of the gate comparable to an AI, or is it just a "system" that reacts to a series of preprogrammed commands?
{edit}Just another question, did the Soviets tell the rest of Fenspace about the gate? If yes, in which year? Knowing about the gate could make a lot researchers/mads moving to Delta Pavonis to look at it.
The gateway's control system is closer to what we'd call an expert system than a true AI. It's not sapient, and it probably isn't all that sentient either. It runs a bunch of very simple programs, designed to keep the gate from falling out of orbit and into things, and to activate the wormhole when queried.
As for the second question... the photo of Tannhauser was sent in an email to various smart people back around Sol a day or so after the initial discovery. The email read something like this:
Subject: Thinking of you...
Having wonderful time, wish you were here. Found this thing, which is very old, powered and we have no idea what it's supposed to do. Instrument readings are attached. Have fun!
--Mal
robkelk Wrote:[size=smaller](What, did you think all my knowledge of Norse myth was filtered through Fujishima-san?)[/size]
[size=smaller]Well... kinda, yeah.[/size]
Skidbladnir's a pretty good name, so let's go with that.
Cobalt Greywalker Wrote:At a guess, the existance of the Gate was classified Ultra-Violet and the main factions SMOFs very quietly told about it. When the Miranda came back with its news, they decided to release the news at Aplhacon (2014), where upon it was promptly put under Convention oversight and access restricted.
Those who ignored this found that there was a combined Trekkie-Warsie fleet stationed there already with an asteroid station under advanced construction by it.
Research station, yes, fleet probably not (that's a lot of resources to divert from Sol at a point when there's not a lot of ships capable of making the trip), classified no.
*makes note of Serge*
Dartz Wrote:I don't see why it's existance has to be classified. While it hasn't been mentioned in stories following after the fact, that means nothing really, does it?
The Soviets wouldn't classify something this big, simply because a) it's a big dumb object in a star system ~18 light years away that's been there for umpty-thousand years not causing any problems, and b) the Soviets by themselves don't have the manpower or the brainpower (Dee nonwithstanding) to really explore/exploit the gate. The final analysis is, it's better to crowdsource the knowledge and maybe reverse-engineer the thing in 50-100 years, instead of trying to keep it quiet, never figure the damn thing out and then get nailed by a diplomatic incident when somebody else stumbles upon Tannhauser or another similar stargate.
Dartz Wrote:For one thing, a story about the next ship going through the gate and disappearing.... then going on a gatehopping journey to get home sounds like great fun. Like Stargate crossed with DW crossed with... I dunno, that depends on whatever they find.
Heh. Heh heh heh.
Allright, enough answers. Let's get to what you're really here for.
The Zeta 1 Reticulli system
The Zeta 1 Reticulli system (Zeta1 for short) consists of nine IAU-standard planets, a debris belt between planets six and seven, an asteroid belt between planets four and five, plus the usual assortment of dwarfs, comets and other out-system debris. Navigation through the outer debris belt is slightly trickier than normal outer system navigation around Sol, and routes charting above the local ecliptic are recommended. The star's Cochrane line lies at 38 AU, though this may be disrupted by the outermost planet.
The system was first surveyed by the Sozvezdie Soviet Deep Space Exploration Force in 2013, as a consequence of discovering and activating the Tannhauser Gate stargate in the Delta Pavonis system.
Elemmire
Elemmire is a small Mercury-type planet with a dense iron core and not much else to speak of.
Earendil
A warm terrestrial world covered almost entirely by deep ocean, Earendil resembles in some ways the popular conception of Venus before the beginning of the space age. It would probably be considered a paradise save for the extremely dense atmosphere consisting of mostly nitrogen and helium with only 3% free oxygen.
Interestingly enough, at 4.1 bar (the rough atmospheric pressure at sea level on Earendil) the mixture of nitrogen, helium and oxygen present in the atmosphere is breathable by humans and other Earth-adapted life. It's not a pleasant experience by any means, but it is doable. To date, however, this remains a largely theoretical exercise, since nobody really wants to try it.
![[Image: earendil.th.png]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/830/earendil.png/)
Earendil's thin and extensive cloud cover hides a world of rain and light.
Arda
Arda is a very Earthlike world. Slightly larger but not as dense as Earth and roughly the same water/land ratio, the planet supports a robust biosphere with abundant plant and animal life everywhere.
Valinor
Valinor is taken as a sign that somebody has been tampering with the Zeta1 system, and it's not hard to see why. Valinor is the only moon of Arda, and by rights should be a dead rocky world a little smaller than Luna. However, when Serge first arrived in the system, it discovered a green and pleasant moon with rolling grasslands and warm seas.
According to everything known about planetology, something like Valinor cannot happen naturally. A moon the size of Valinor doesn't have the mass necessary to maintain a core hot enough to generate a magnetic field, nor is that mass enough to hold onto volatiles like free oxygen, nitrogen and water. And research into Valinor bears this out – the moon was terraformed within the last 30,000 years, given an artificial magnetosphere though a process similar to the Xavier Protocol satellites used by the Martian Terraforming Project, and populated with lifeforms from ArdaAccording to genetic comparison research done on samples provided to the Vesta Institute.. Who did this, and why, remain a mystery. No signs of indigenous intelligent life or extraterrestrial colonization were found on Arda, Valinor nor any of the other planets in the Zeta1 system. The current hypothesis suggests that the system was discovered and then terraformed by automated probes, which upon completion of their work departed for another system.
![[Image: afargreencountryunderas.th.png]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/209/afargreencountryunderas.png/)
Even after terraforming and centuries of erosion, Valinor's old lunar surface can be seen in the shorelines and deep crater lakes.
Night's Door
The companion to Tannhauser Gate, the artificial wormhole aperture holds position at the L1 point between Arda and Valinor. It appears to be identical in structure to the one in Delta Pavonis, with the same mixture of metal, transuranics and inert handwavium.
Interestingly enough, 'handshaking' with the control system inside Night's Door revealed a more complex system than the one inside Tannahuser. Soviet research suggests that Night's Door may be able to connect to other apertures than just Tannhauser. Research is still continuing.
Carnil
The last of the inhabitable worlds in the Zeta1 system. Carnil is largely Earthlike, covered with large shallow oceans and extensive mountain ranges. Unlike Earendil, Arda and Valinor, life on Carnil hasn't really developed past the algae-and-fish stage; the continental masses are largely uncolonized, while the oceans have extensive biospheres based on subsurface mats of kelplike plants.
![[Image: carnil.th.png]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/208/carnil.png/)
Carnil's oceans are barely 1000m deep at their deepest point.
Alcarinque
The largest gas giant in the Zeta1 system, Alcarinque is a pretty average Jupiter-type world, notable only by its ring system, which is larger and more extensive than Saturn's.
Lumbar
Another gas giant, again nothing really exciting about it.
Nenar
A Neptunian ice dwarf with a larger than normal number of moons for a planet of it's mass, but otherwise nothing special in composition.
Lunil
Another ice dwarf with nothing particularly special about it.
Morgoth
Last of the ice dwarfs in the Zeta1 system, and the smallest of the three. Has one moon (Sauron) that gets enough tidal energy from Morgoth to have extensive volcanic activity on the surface, rasing the local temperature to above the freezing point.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"