Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub. 14

We explored more of this subsection than originally planned: it was surprising to find so many uninhabited planets so close to Spaceport-planet. Or maybe not: nobody wants the campsite next to the bathroom.

3 days’ travel from Spaceport, we found a small, habitable planet. By small I mean tiny, approaching Little Prince status.

We sent down a…small team. If they have not explored the entire planet by the time we return, I will be surprised.
#tootplanet

Explorer Log Planet 7-14-2

Landmasses here are small, reasonably: the planet is small. By all rights, it shouldn’t have a breathable atmosphere, but it does & we’ll take that.

We landed on a continent that is ~20 sq. mi. in a rough comma shape & 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. There’s even a lake ~ 1 acre large.

I keep expecting to discover this is a prank.

#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 17

This planet looks so much like Earth from a distance that I checked all our readings 3 times.

Indeed, it is inhabited-the continent we had to keep resisting calling Africa shows signs of dense population & industry, as does all of the southern hemisphere.

We caught a few video transmissions, & they seem remarkably humanoid, although with little-to-no cold tolerance.

We sent 3 polite greeting probes & took more photos than strictly necessary.
#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 17

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 gilvery-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.

#tootplanet
#tootfic

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 18

This planet is larger than Earth but not amazingly so & dryer than Earth but not horribly so.

What is really notable is how FLAT it is, w/ only a small amount of variation between the high & low spots, & how QUIET it is. There is little axial tilt, but enough to make it homelike; the tides ride far up on the beaches.

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

#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 18

We were uncertain at 1st glance if this planet could sustain life. Its land 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 rounder-has greenery & what appears to be some sort of animal life.

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

#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 18

This planet is lightly inhabited-the equivalent of early Iron-age technology. We won’t bother them, tho we will note to visit every 100 yrs.

The strange thing here: continents & landmasses are bilaterally symmetrical; seas could be drawn with a compass, mountains with a ruler. But their buildings, structures, even their roads are defiantly asymmetrical.

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

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 19

There were theories that the farther from Earth we went, the less likely we’d be to find habitable life. They’re not holding true.

This planet would be warm for most humans, but were it not already inhabited by lizard-like bipeds, it would be a nice place to settle.

Their tech is fast approaching space-faring. We sent down a greeting probe & took recordings of their transmissions.

If translations are correct, they enjoy soap operas.

#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 19

I didn’t want to send a team down here.

It’s not like me to let aesthetics get in the way of the mission, but this place is lovely.

Flowers cover almost every cm of the surface-water flowers, land flowers, even what looks like flowered ground cover on the mountains. They sway in meadows & make thick, flowered forest-like copses.

We did send a team, w/ a suggestion to tread very carefully and, perhaps, bring the boss a bouquet on retrieval.

#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 19

We thought our lenses were broken when we first looked at this planet.

There are several civilizations growing up on here-it’s on the high side of what’s considered livable-probably unaware of each other.

Among other things, a hundred-mile forest and a mountain range separate the 2 closest. The trees are only 2m at highest & the sentient lifeforms range from 15-30cm.

We could feel like giants against their fauna & flora.

We moved on instead.

#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 20

This planet isn’t interesting. That is: the planet is a gas giant; there may be life on it, but not that we could detect.

On the other hand, 3 of the moons showed signs of old, dead civilizations, with one of those showing signs, too, of a newer, more compact society, and a 4th (of 8) moons appeared to have a tidy & thriving society living across three craters.

We sent greeting probes to the active societies & a team to the larger of the ruins.
#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 20

This planet had so little green that at first we passed it by but, after some of the earlier planets which proved habitable, we searched it more deeply.

From space, it looks mainly gold, orange & brown, but the swirls of orange were revealed to be cloudlike; much of the rest is giant fungi & a sort of water-based fungi island.

We send down several probes, but detected no intelligent life. Still, we did not send down a team. It didn’t seem kind.
#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 21
This planet looks as if it was habitable-& inhabited!-at some point. Vast structures stand empty on the highest points, while much of the rest of the planet is covered with rust-red scum.

3 small areas still looked livable, & on 2 of those, we found much smaller civilization-signs-tiny buildings & green-stone roads. We sent down a couple cautious probes. There is insufficient land for a colony, but we might be able to learn what happened here.

#tootplanet

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 21
After a certain point, you learn to recognize the look of a colony settled from another planet: high-tech groupings in small areas.

This is the 1st such we’ve seen on this circuit, and to be honest, although it fits in our criteria, these colonists are welcome to it. The land is half desert, half ocean, with a cold tundra in the middle riddled with rivers. Humanoids could live there-but the 6-limbed creatures farming it seem to thrive.

#tootplanet 1/2

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 21
This planet is an “If we didn’t know it was inhabited, we’d never believe it” sort.

Initial scans show a swampy, wet planet, w/ no real oceans but several inland seas & a lot of murky swampland & dark, damp forests. They also show very few heat signatures & almost no construction.

Our first probes, however, showed a large, sprawling population of damp, green, cold-blooded people living in short, mostly-buried buildings in & around swamps.

#tootplanet