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Honorverse Tech Bu9
by David Weber

Letter from Stephanie

FROM: Harrington, Stephanie HS-SKM-78-10009.033

TO: Kerensky, Maja MK-MDAHL-10005-93061.042

DATE: 01/17/1519 PD (SR)

TIME: 13:27:04 (local)

RECORDING BEGINS:

Hey, I'm sorry I didn't get around to recording this as soon as I meant to. Like, I dunno, maybe a T-year or so ago? I really meant to get to it sooner, but things have been sorta hectic since we got here. And up until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't really have anything exciting to tell anybody about.

Guess that sounds pretty dumb, doesn't it? Well, I thought it was going to be a lot more exciting than it turned out to be, too. I mean, interstellar trips sound really neat, don't they? But I found out that's only until you actually take one. A starship looks just the same inside as an intra-system ship, you know? Well, aside from the spin sections, of course. What a pain! The Madeleine Davenport's a pretty big ship, but her spin section's still only seventy-five meters across. Even that makes her look like a sausage that got pregnant, stuck in the middle that way, and there's no way they could've made it any bigger. They had to spin it at three RPM just to produce about three-quarters of a gravity, and that gets pretty lame pretty fast. I don't care what anyone says, spin gravity isn't the same thing as real gravity! You're heavier at your feet than your head, and that takes some getting used to. In fact, I never did really get used to it all the way. And lower gravity isn't anywhere near as much fun as it sounds like, either. It was pretty neat bouncing around for the first couple of days, but nobody’ll let you really have fun with it. Traffic rules everywhere! And nothing weighs what it's supposed to. Personally, I'd’ve preferred to be closer to my right weight instead of less than two thirds of what I weighed back home, but the Captain got on the intercom and explained why they couldn't make it any higher.

I know everybody's talking about how they finally have the math figured out to generate artificial gravity that won't just squash people flat, but they've had that figured out for eons! Well, at least for—what? Fifty years now? I mean, that's at least one eon, isn't it? And they've had counter-grav in a natural gravity field for at least that long, but, no, they can't get the "engineering" figured out! Bet I could—well, I mean you could, you always were the wire head. And it'll sure make starship design—and travel—an awful lot easier. Man, no wonder all those slow-boat colonists made the trip stacked up in cryo sleep! It only took us about eleven weeks, and I'd've slept the whole way if they'd given me the choice. Matter of fact, Mom said something about wishing I could've, but I think she was kidding.

I'm not so sure space sickness from zero G would've been any worse than the gravity we actually had. In fact, I enjoyed the zero G before they stuck us in the spin section—didn't have any of the problems some people did. Like Mom, I'm afraid. She was somewhere around five Garns on the space sickness scale before we got her into the spin section. And one of the other passengers handled zero G even worse than she did. He actually puked, and I'm just glad there were crew people around to get it cleaned up before it floated over our way. Not me, though, and it's really almost as much fun as hang gliding. Slower, you know, but kinda . . . floaty. More like when Coach Tuttle kept telling us to slow down in tai chi class, I guess. If I couldn't weigh what I weighed back home, I'd a lot rather have floated around for the whole trip, I think. ’Course they wouldn't’ve let me—all that stuff about bone density and other crap, not to mention housecleaning problems when stuff gets away from you, like that poor guy's puke, now that I think about it. Of course, I'd've been willing to take the meds for zero G all the way to Manticore, but you can just imagine how Dad and Mom would have felt about my doing that "at your age." Man, will I be glad when "at your age" doesn't come up in every third conversation!

But if I couldn't have zero G, at least they did have a couple of high-grav sessions scheduled in the gym every day. Well, high-grav by ship standards, anyway, if you can call one whole gravity high. They had to step up the rotation on the gym section to make it work, of course, and that got pretty weird, ’cause the gravity differential between your feet and your head gets a lot bigger when the RPMs go up. Have to allow for that when you're working out, but it's not too bad on the treadmill once you adjust. Some of the other passengers from Meyerdahl couldn't handle the Coriolis effect when they pumped up the spin on the gym section, either. Didn't bother me much, but I bet it was a real bummer for the people it did bother.

Aside from that, a starship is just more of the same thing you get in a sublight ship, though. Same hallways—only they call them "passages" and in the spin sections they curve to wrap around the hull, which I guess is pretty cool, but it gets old fast—and booooring lounges and cafeterias where they serve the same menu every single week. It just goes on longer than any of the in-system field trips we took back in Meyerdahl. A lot longer. At least they had a pretty decent entertainment library, but by the end of the trip I was watching "Antigone Iwahara: Kid Detective” HDs. Tells you how far gone I was, doesn't it? Man, by the time we actually got here, I couldn't wait to get off that ship.

Then we hung around in an apartment in Yawata Crossing while they finished up building the house on Mom and Dad's freehold. I can't say Yawata Crossing's much of a town yet, even if it is what they call a city here on Sphinx. It's got—you ready for this?—almost thirty thousand people. That's right, about the same number of people we had in our voting precinct back in Hollister. And at the moment, it's the acting capital of the entire planet ’cause they took so many losses in the old capital they had to move it. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice enough place, it's just sorta . . . tiny, know what I mean?

Anyway, after a couple of weeks, they got the house finished and we moved in. Pretty nice, really. I've got my own room, and it's darn near as big as the whole apartment was back home. It's really weird not having any neighbors, but it's kinda nice, in a way, and the planetary datanet's better than I expected, really. There's no way anybody but a zillionaire could've afforded four hundred square kilometers of land on Meyerdahl, either! And Mom has her own lab right here on the freehold, with all her greenhouses and everything. Brand-new top-of-the-line equipment, too—lots better than that stuff she had to work with back at the Institute. And Dad has an almost new office in Twin Forks. That's the "town" closest to the freehold. And if they think thirty thousand people make a city, I'll let you guess how many people make a town here on riproaring old Sphinx. And I'll bet whatever number you guess will be too high. Most of the people are pretty nice, I guess, even if I don't think much of the local kids. I'm pretty sure anything like a real thought would strain most of their brains. ’Course Mom says I never gave the zork brains back in Hollister enough of a chance to show they could actually hang onto two thoughts at once, so what do I know? Maybe I'm being too rough on them, but I'm beating the snot out of almost all of them in the chess championships. That should tell you something.

I said Dad's office was "almost new." That's because he isn't Twin Forks' first vet. They lost their first vet to the Plague. That turned out to be a scarier thought than I'd expected. I mean, I knew bunches of people had died, and it was sort of exciting thinking about going on a rescue, but I hadn't counted on how many people who are still here lost other people. It's kinda spooky, in a way.

But, anyway, we got here—just in time for winter. You know, when you and I were first looking at the profile on Sphinx, you pointed out that the local year was over five T-years long and I sorta waved my hands and went on to other stuff. You remember that? I do. And I shoulda paid more attention, too, ’cause that means winter lasts fifteen months. Maja, it snowed for over a year, know what I mean? I mean, snowball fights and sleds and skiing and hot chocolate, it's all great. Don't get me wrong. But after a year or so you'd kinda like to see, I dunno, a piece of ground that's not frozen, maybe?

Mom says I got "cabin fever." I don't know about that, but I know when the snow finally started melting, man, I could hardly wait to get out into the bush. I mean, that was the whole thing for me when Mom and Dad said we were heading for a frontier planet, one that hasn't even been completely mapped yet! I bet you're halfway through your junior internship with the forest reprogram, aren't you? Well, I'm not. In fact, they don't even have one here on Sphinx! I asked, even sent a few e-mails to Chief Ranger Shelton—and no, whatever Mom says, I did not "pester" him!—but the Sphinx Forestry Service is way understaffed right now. That's what Chief Ranger Shelton says, anyway, and I guess he's probably right. Anyway, he says they don't have the manpower for supervised field trips, and Dad really laid down the law when I tried to poke around a little bit myself. And I did not "sneak off," either! I just sorta . . . forgot to discuss my plans. That's all. Wellllllllll, maybe not quite all. I still don't think he had to come down as hard as he did, though. He didn't quite ground me completely, but he really put his foot down where the bush is concerned. I can't go anywhere without an adult. Doesn't that just sound wonderful?

All right, so I'm sulking. Wouldn't be much point pretending I wasn't when I'm talking to you, would there? ’Cause you wouldn't believe I wasn't for a minute, and you'd be right. But there's a whole world out there, Maja! One nobody's even seen yet! I mean, who knows what's out there? I don't—and I wanna find out! But Dad says "It's not like Meyerdahl, Steph. It doesn't have com stations every fifteen meters. And it's got real live hungry critters out there just waiting to swallow you right down!" At least he didn't go on and add "One day you'll thank me for this"!

Guess I shouldn't really make fun of him that way, ’cause he's probably right. I mean, they've got hexapumas and peak bears—you can find some info on them in the bio attachment—and they're pretty scary, really. A hexapuma's darn near twice as big as a spine cat back on Meyerdahl, and nobody ever taught one of them to be afraid of humans. So, yeah, one of them probably would be perfectly happy to turn me into munchies if he got the chance. Not that I'm stupid enough to give one of them a chance! Besides, they don't climb very well—they're too darn big—so all I really need is a couple of jumps' head start and my counter-grav belt and they'd never be able to catch me. ’Course Dad says I'd probably get all interested in something and be concentrating on that and never notice Mister Hexapuma sneaking around in the underbrush. Ha! Fat chance I'm going to miss six or seven hundred kilos of hungry, six-legged kitty cat sneaking up on me! But you know Dad. Once he gets an idea in his head, not even Mom can get it back out again, and she's had lots more practice than I have!

But . . . but it didn't turn out to be quite as bad as I thought it was going to. In fact, it turned out to be pretty darned cool. See, Mom was trying to come up with something to keep me from being totally bummed out by being stuck here on the freehold, and she told me about this big "mystery" that people were telling her about. Well, you know, I figured it was just Mom trying to distract me, but actually, it was pretty interesting. See, somebody—or something—has been stealing celery!

Ha! Bet you sprayed soda all over the display when you heard that one. Big scary mystery, huh? Celery thieves! Lock the doors, bolt the windows! Man, they could have all the celery in the world, as far as I'm concerned! But it was actually kinda interesting when I started looking at it, ’cause nobody had a clue who was taking it, or why. And it was such teeny tiny amounts, too. I know Mom figured she'd get me interested in trying to figure it out and that would "distract me" from Dad's little decree about the bush, but the thing is, she was right. I did get interested. At first, I figured it was just some kind of joke, somebody who thought it'd be really funny to watch everybody else run around in circles trying to figure out what was going on. But the more I looked at it, the more that didn't make much sense. And I wasn't the only one who thought that. In fact, the best explanation was that there was some critter here on Sphinx that was actually stealing celery, though God knows I wouldn't. But whatever it was, nobody ever managed to get a trace of it. Not a picture, not a footprint—nothing.

’Course the Elysian Rule didn't make it any easier. They're really serious about enforcing it here, and I'm glad they are, but whatever's been stealing celery managed to avoid every sensor, every camera, every nonlethal trap. Some people were even starting to talk about ghosts, and I don't think all of them were kidding, either. But then I had my brainstorm. I checked, and aside from the motion sensors, just about everybody was using infrared, so I decided to try something else. And it worked.

Maja, I didn't expect it, but this is the coolest, most wonderful thing that ever happened in my entire life. I haven't even told Mom and Dad about it yet, ’cause I'm not gonna tell anyone until I have absolute proof. The kind of proof nobody can brush off or just tell the kid with the overactive imagination to run along. I found out who's been stealing the celery, and it is gonna absolutely rock this planet and the entire Star Kingdom—heck, it's gonna rock the whole darned galaxy, if I'm right—and it's gonna be my name that goes into the history books, too. But you know what? I don't really care all that much about that other stuff. Uh-uh. What I care about is figuring out where my little celery thief came from and meeting his friends and neighbors. And I've even figured out a way to do it without breaking Dad's decree . . . mostly, anyway.

That's all I'm gonna say for right now. I don't want to give anything more away, but you should be expecting another letter for me in another couple of months, and when I send it, you'll be getting the whole story.

But for now, I've gotta run. Got two research papers and a whole chapter of math to knock out by tomorrow morning, so I'd better get to it. There's a mail boat headed coreward from Manticore tomorrow sometime, so I'll squirt this up to the comsat for it as soon as I'm done recording. I miss you, Maja . . . a lot. I guess I didn't really have all that many friends back in the Hollister, either, but you were the best. So I hope how long it took me to get this recorded won't keep you from recording one back to me. I know it takes months just to send them, but I'd really like to hear from you.

God, that sounds pretty lame and lonely, doesn't it? Didn't mean for it to, and I really am excited. I'm going to figure this whole thing out and nail it down, and if I'm lucky, that's going to be my ticket into the Forestry Service here on Sphinx.

Okay, that's it. Gotta close. Oh, but, hey! I'm attaching some stuff. A lot of it's kinda boring—all that stuff about what a wonderful place to live the Star Kingdom is so they can convince you to come all the way out here, I mean—but there's some neat stuff in there, too. Enough to give you an idea what it's like out here. And that really is all I've got time for. Miss you, Maja. Talk to you later.

Bye.

RECORDING ENDS

Immigration Brochure

Star Kingdom of Manticore
Home Office
Ministry of Immigration
Pamphlet SKM-GR-1517-S (Excerpted)
19 July, 1517 PD (AL 58.02.22)

Introduction To The Manticoran Settlement Program

The Star Kingdom of Manticore is a vibrant and young culture looking to provide opportunities for those core worlders (and others) with the mettle and desire to help us reach our full potential, and yours. While the bulk of the Star Kingdom’s population lives on Manticore itself, the Crown and Kingdom have need of technical specialists willing to relocate to either of our two inhabited worlds.

The Star Kingdom’s current needs are for colonists on both Manticore and Sphinx. Immigrants of sufficient resources may wish to invest in settling on Manticore itself, but the land market value is much higher, and Crown assistance for colonization there is sufficiently different that you will need to contact the Home Office directly for more information. Please see pamphlet SKM-GR-1517-M for the requirements for Manticore.

Sphinxian Planetary Conditions

To sing the paens of any world is a task requiring multiple verses of elegaics, and Sphinx, more so than most, cannot be summed up in simply a paragraph or two. Sphinx is a frontier, where we’re seeking colonists with a pioneering spirit, those whose internal mettle is matched by the majestic beauty of Sphinxian mountains, and whose long term view and resourcefulness are matched only by the majestic slow seasons of Sphinx, with rainy springs, cool summers, windy autumns and quiet winters suited to long contemplations.

Sphinx (Manticore-A IV) is larger than Manticore (Manticore-A III) and about 30 percent larger than Earth. It is also somewhat more massive and richer in metals than either planet, with a planetary gravity of 1.35 G. Colonists from lower gravity worlds will be provided with portable countergrav units free of charge, and the government will subsidize the purchase of grav plates for household use as well.

Sphinx has been extensively surveyed, both from orbit and in person with human explorers. The oldest settlement on Sphinx is just over a T-Century old, and the current population of the planet is just under two million citizens. The planet, while possessed of a very long year (5.2 T-years) has a very low axial tilt, moderating the seasonal extremes.

To residents of Old Earth, the equatorial regions of the part of Sphinx open for colonization are roughly comparable to the climate of the Carolina regions of North America, or the southeastern quarter of coastal China. As you move away from the equator, the climate cools at a lower rate than it does on Earth. In the Yatara Crossing area, the climate is roughly comparable to that of New Zealand or Oregon through Vancouver on Old Earth, though snowfalls can get substantially deeper. Climate variation as you move inward from coastal regions takes on a more continental pattern.

Immigration Policy and Incentives

When your application is approved, the Crown will match your transit costs in land grants on Sphinx or Manticore. All land grants are calculated at current market value at the time of arrival, and based on the actual transit cost incurred. The current land offerings vary in size between planets. In general, Sphinx offers far larger areas than Manticore, ranging from 100 to 800 square kilometers, depending on the location.

As an example, grants of 60 kilometer by 60 kilometer parcels (360 square kilometers total) are currently equivalent to the cost of passage from Sol. All land grants are issued by lottery and may not be perfectly square. At this time, the Crown is offering land grant lottery drawings on the continents of Haley’s Land, Thule, and southwestern portions of Justianna. New arrivals may petition for an equivalent parcel from the unassigned plots, which will be considered by the Bureau of Immigration on a case-by-case basis. As we meet our targeted levels of immigration, other land grants may open up in the future.

Additional land grants may be purchased at 50 percent of current market value for those individuals able to pay for their entire transportation costs.

Retention of the land grant requires permanent occupancy by your family for a period of not less than five Manticoran years (8.65 T-years) and certain mandatory improvements (including creating a landing pad for countergrav vehicles, required utility connections for communication and power generation systems, as well as basic habitability requirements) must be constructed at the occupant’s expense and maintained. Please see Appendix B for full details.

For investors of sufficient means, purchase of lesser patents of nobility can be arranged, along with a grant of land and the obligations and duties that pertain to a Peer of the Realm. These grants are hereditary to the designated heirs of the original patent holder, and are limited to Earl and lower. The Crown reserves the right to elevate worthy citizens to the Peerage with the consent of the House of Lords, and to elevate members of the Peerage with that same consent, based on meritorious service to the Kingdom. The Crown and the House of Lords review all applications to purchase membership into the Manticoran Peerage on a case-by-case basis, based on financial contributions, character references, and what contributions to the Kingdom can be expected.

Those individuals who otherwise meet the requirements for colonization, but lack funding, the Crown will cover the entire cost of transportation, including temporary housing for a period of one T-month while the applicant seeks employment. The Crown may also offer subsidized loans, payable at 2 percent interest on a 99 T-year issue. These loans are issued solely at the discretion of the Crown and are subject to a case-by-case analysis. There are no penalties for early repayment of the loan.

Terms and Conditions

The value of a land grant presumes that the new colonist is coming from the Sol system. Those who travel to the Star Kingdom from nearer systems may find that the relative cost of a land grant is lower, due to reduced travel expenses. In general, the closer a land grant is to an established population center, the lower its total area will be. The more extreme the climate is, the larger the land grant’s area will be. Some land grants with exploitable mineral resources may prove to be exceptions to this rule.

The broad geographical region of your land grant will be determined by the Crown, based on your declared skill sets. If there is a valid choice to be made, the Crown will present you with options. The exact location and acreage of your land grant within the defined geographical region will be determined by lottery overseen by agents of the Crown.

The Star Kingdom will apply direct subsidies (in effect paying part of the passage) as funding grants for colonists with skills on Appendix A. In particular, biologists, medics, veterinarians, computer technicians, programmers, civil engineers, planetologists, agronomists and teachers are in demand on Sphinx. The Crown prefers immigration by entire family groups, as they provide a much needed mutual support network on a new home.

Citizenship in the Star Kingdom, and the full protection under the law, is granted when the colonist gives their oath of fealty to the Crown. The franchise (the privilege of voting in elections for Parliament) is awarded for partially subsidized citizens one full Manticoran year (1.73 T-years) after arrival.

Fully subsidized citizens will receive the franchise when they have paid income taxes under their own name for five consecutive Manticoran years (8.65 T-years) or have served 2 Manticoran years in the Royal Armed Forces.

Full details and exceptions to these terms can be found in Appendix C.

Enjoy Your New Home

The Star Kingdom of Manticore welcomes you to Sphinx and looks forward to your work and contributions to the Kingdom as a whole. We sincerely wish you all the success in the worlds in your new home. Please feel free to contact the Ministry of Immigration with further inquiries about the Manticoran Settlement Program.

Applications can be filled out online, or in person at any offices of the Manticore Colony Trust.

Sphinx Biology Database

Planetary Overview
Sphinx: Manticore-A-IV

(4th planet out from Manticore A)

A rocky terrestroid planet orbiting Manticore A with a semi-major axis of 2.54 AU (1,273 light seconds; 21 minutes, 13 light seconds). The planetary’s physical parameters include a mass of 13.6212^24 kg (2.28 x Earth), density of 5.73 kg/m^3 (1.04 x Earth), and a concurrent surface gravity of 13.171 m/sec/sec. (1.349 x Earth). Planetary orbital velocity is 10.56 km/sec, while planetary escape velocity is 14.81 km/sec. The local planetary year is 5.2 T-years, and made up of a pattern of 46 months, alternating between 39 local days and 38 local days, with a leap day every 7 local years.

Geostationary orbit height is 53,216.45 km, and a 500 km orbit height has an orbital velocity of 10.23 km/sec. The planet has two moons, Perseus, with a diameter of 672 km and a density of 1.62 kg/m^3, orbiting with a semi-major axis of 142,000 km, and Bellerophon, with a diameter of 426 km and a density of 2.12 kg/m^3 and a semi-major axis of 332,000 km. Minor mining operations occur on both moons. Both moons combined produce tides that are less than 10 percent of Earth’s. This is not unusual, as Earth is something of an outlier as a near double planet in mass. The planetary hydrosphere is 68 percent of the planetary surface, and the total land surface area is 229 percent that of Earth’s.

The planetary axial tilt is 14.51 degrees, and the land horizon is roughly 5.76 km, and the nautical horizon at 12.87 km. The planetary instellation averages roughly 73 W/m^2, or a bit less than 17 percent of Sol’s; this lack of instellation is compensated for by a much higher greenhouse gas percentage than Earth’s; the planetary CO2 levels at surface partial pressure can cause rapid breathing syndrome in new arrivals as their breathing reflex adjusts. When all factors (albedo, greenhouse gas mix and instellation are accounted for) the average surface temperature of Sphinx is 285 Kelvin, or 12 degrees Centigrade; this is a full 10 degrees cooler than Earth.

The combination of low axial tilt and low instellation means the planetary ice caps are prominent, greatly impacting planetary albedo. This has secondary effects on the planet’s climate and recent geological and biological history.

Recent Geological History

Sphinx has an unusually thick mantle for a planet of its mass and density and has a lower level of tectonic activity than its mass and size would otherwise indicate. This is still somewhat higher than Old Earth. Sphinx’s topography, as is typical of planets in its mass range, is of very deep seas and mountainous continents. Most of the land on Sphinx is, geologicaly speaking, fairly young, and large basin-lands are much less prominent on the planetary map.

This lower than typical level of tectonic activity and assessments of Sphinx’s Milankovic periodicity (shifts in its orbital eccentricity and the traverse of its axial tilt) indicate that until roughly 30,000 T-years ago, +/-10,000 T-years, Sphinx’s ice caps extended nearly twice as far towards the equator as they do now. It is thought that the Stubleford Traps formation in northern Slocum, near the northern pole, may have released enough CO2 into the atmosphere to trigger a glacial retreat. This area of active volcanism appears to be over a mantle plume hotspot and is still active; it is roughly the size of the region of Brazil on Old Earth.

The low temperature differential between the equatorial oceans and the poles inhibits ocean current circulation, and the lower axial tilt means that seasons are less extreme on Sphinx, though they are longer. Sphinx’s equatorial regions do not get as hot as Earth’s, but the degree to which the climate changes per degree of latitude away from the equator is lower than on Earth, until the glacial region is reached, at which point the temperature gradient drops suddenly.

There is ample biological evidence for a recent glacial retreat on Sphinx. The Sphinxian climate has gotten warmer and wetter, and there are many species that still show adaptations such as larger sizes and thicker coats for a colder climate, and there is a great deal of evidence indicating that species are moving into new biomes, looking for new or different food sources.

In a very real sense, the human colonization on Sphinx appears to have arrived during a period of geology-and-climate induced punctuated equilibrium.

Biological Assay of the Tannerman Gulf Region

On a planet with as many diverse biomes as Sphinx has, a full planetary biological assay will be the work of a T-century or more. There’s simply insufficient manpower to do it, and too many pressing needs on the limited number of biologists available, many of whom do double and triple duty as veterinarians and as first responders. What follows is excerpts from the biological assay for the Tannerman Gulf Region, located on the western coast of Haley’s Land, and is where a number of new homesteads and freeholds have been established.

Generalized Biome and Climate

The Tannerman Gulf region has a slightly warmer than average climate for its latitude, due to an offshore warm water current heading southward along the coast of Haley Land. Much of this air is trapped by the mountain ranges on the eastern boundaries of the region. The eastern portion of the ranges are drier, have larger native biomes and have been mapped by aerial survey and ground penetrating radar for topography, but have no human settlements as of the time of this writing, and have had only four overland expeditions in them in the last fifty T-years.

The Tannerman Gulf region has frequent mild rains, as is typical for the weather patterns off of the ocean, and (for Sphinx) comparatively mild winters for its latitude; the snow generally lasts for a month or two per heavy snowfall, melting off, in patches, before the next snowfall hits, and winters in this region start and end with a rainy season; overall the “climactic” winter lasts a bit over a T-year. Temperatures in the winter are mild, going down to -10 to -15 centigrade in the coldest part of the winter.

By contrast, the summers are comparatively cool and pleasant, and the thicker Sphinxian atmosphere and lower instellation make heat stroke and sunburn almost unheard of. Scorchingly hot days in the Tannerman Gulf region get into the high 20s to low 30s.

The abundance of water, and relatively recent soil formation make the dominant fauna of the region mixed copses of picketwood, with groves of crown oak and near pine interspersed. Forest fires are sometimes a risk during the height of summer. In the drier areas to the east of the Copperwall Mountains, other tree species, notably rock wood, have a wider range.

Picketwood

The picketwood makes up the dominant arboreal habitat in the Tannerman Bay region. It is a dual-deciduous softwood tree with a fairly quick growth rate, and sends down runners from its lower braches; these runners become nodal trunks, allowing the picketwood to asexually spread over large areas. The actual photosynthetic canopy of picketwoods starts roughly 20 meters up in a mature trunk, and remains productive well past the initial rainy season of winter.

Picketwoods offer a moderating impact on the local biome. Picketwood leaf-mass drop provides compost for wintering shrubs, which fix nitrogen in the soil for the picket-wood’s root structures to absorb. The bark is rough gray and black, with four lobed-splay patterned leaves. Typical height for a mature picket-wood tree is 35-45 meters.

Near Pine

The second most populous tree type, the near pine is an evergreen softwood with hairy seedpods and a deeply furrowed rough bark. The trees are highly resinous, and their seeds are edible, if enough effort is made to extract them from the seedpod; the oil from them can be used for cooking and is considered something of a delicacy if caught right near the end of the fall rainy season. The seed pods estivate through the winter, and when conditions are right, new near pine seedlings grow rapidly in the spring. When fully mature, near pines form relatively thick trunked trees reaching 62 meters in height, taking nearly 20 T-years to reach this height, and can grow by as much as 3 meters in a growing season. Near pines appear to be in the process of being displaced by picketwoods and crown oaks.

Red Spruce

The red spruce is altitude adapted, and because of this, appears to have less competition for its ecological niche; stands of red spruce are seen on the sides of the mountains to the east of Tannerman Bay, and aerial surveys show that their range extends into the dryer areas beyond. Another evergreen, Red Spruce has scaled, very dark blue-green leaves and a pyramidal form. Its seedpods are smoother than the near pine’s, but the seeds themselves are bitter tasting with an alkaloid that makes them unpalatable to Terrestrial life, and causes allergic reactions in some. This same alkaloid allows the seed pods to pass through the digestive tract of Sphinxian chipmunks without harm. The name comes from the russet color of its wood, which is prized for decorative woodwork. Average height of a mature red spruce is about 17 meters (56 feet). It does not grow as rapidly as a near pine does.

Crown Oak

The crown oak is a dual deciduous tree that produces pine-needle like filament leaves for the winter months, sheds them in the spring, and generates five-lobed leaves more suited to a wetter climate in spring to last through the summer months. It is adapted to a drier climate than the near pine, and as the area around the Tannerman Gulf dries in adjustment to climate change, it is opportunistically expanding into ranges left open by wildfires which devastate the near pine stands. At full height, this tree reaches a height of 80 meters. Efforts are underway to sustainably harvest timber from this tree for furniture and flooring, and it is seen as a potentially valuable export commodity.

Rock Tree

Rock trees appear to be a living fossil species; their tall, straight trunk and long narrow leaves make them well suited to shorter growing seasons and extreme cold. They can survive on much less moisture than picketwoods and near pines, and are more common east of the mountains, though stands of them are scattered throughout the picketwood forests. Their name come from the unusually high concentrations of bonded silicates in the cell walls of the trunk, making for a very fire resistant and difficult to cut wood. The wood itself is nearly fireproof for temperatures commonly found in nature. There are several varieties, known for the color of the lumber, which is labor intensive to gather, and process, but highly in demand.

Lace Willow

The lace willow is a common understory runner-plant, and is a relative of the same genus as the picketwood, though it is most common in marshy areas. It has streamer-like leaves, and the Tannerman Gulf area appears to be the southern edge of its natural range. The name comes from the pierced meshlike nature of the leaves, which are used to capture insect analogs and drop them down as a source of nutrients into the root structure.

Spike Blossom / Spike Thorn

A native Sphinxian flowering shrub which fills much the same niche as azaleas or laurels, attaining a maximum height of about 3.6 meters. Its leaves are dark green and spade shaped, and it produces very sharp thorns up to 10 centimeters in length. Its blossoms, which come in many different colors, are vaguely tulip shaped and are prized for the flavor their pollen gives to honey produced by imported terrestrial honey bees.

Range Barley

This woody plant is a low moisture adapted relative of the near pine, and its westernmost range creeps around the eastern mountains bordering the Tannerman Gulf region. It grows to roughly three meters in height, with a single trunk that’s roughly 3 cm in diameter, and produces very small forms of the near pine’s needles. During the fall, it produces a lighter weight seed pod at the crown of the plant; the center of the plant is a woody pulp that can be ground and used as a flour, or be made as a porridge. The seed pods are high in tannic acid and have to be blanched before they're edible, but can also be used to supplement the pulp. While the Range Barley has a number of similarities to terrestrial grasses in its growth cycle, and as an edible food source, it is not a wind-blown self-pollinating grass such as might be found on Old Earth. It is a curiousity because it appears to be a recent mutation. It is thought that tuskelopes (see below) eat range barley when they can find stands of it, but there are few areas in the Tannerman Gulf region where picketwood and range barley grow near each other.

Tanapple

A native Sphinxian fruit shrub that grows in moist moderate climates, the fruiting mechanism is triggered by environmental factors which have so far proven difficult to isolate; it is considered, after the range barley, to be the likeliest native Sphinxian plant to become domesticated and cultivated for food. The shrub grows in the understory area beneath picketwoods and crown oaks, and has a blade-like leaf structure. The fruiting body shows up after the first snowfall each year, and is a multi-segmented fruiting body that’s the color of a green apple, in a thick rind reminiscent of terrestrial citrus. It is tart, and sweet, and used locally for preserves, jams, pies, and as a garnish for poultry and ham.

Native Fauna

Nearly all Sphinxian life forms have hexapedal bilateral symmetry, and the species near the Tannerman Gulf region follow this body plan. In areas where the dominant plant life is the picketwood, the middle set of and forward set of limbs are commonly dual purpose, with the mid-limbs configured for grasping and locomotion and the forelimbs specialized for grasping itself.

Nearly every species of animal on Sphinx is exothermic; this is nearly a requirement for surviving the long winters. Unlike plants, which remain in the same place, animal species tend to migrate, in response to seasonal changes, mating habits, and pursuit of food sources. There is a large amount that is unknown about Sphinxian biota, even in this area. It is a widely held contention among Sphinxian Forestry Service biologists that there are at least two medium-to-large herbivorous species that have not been directly or indirectly observed yet.

Most Sphinxian animal life—even many species with “bird-like” names, more closely resemble Terrestrial mammals than birds or reptiles. The dividing line on local naming conventions is based in part on the whim of the first researcher to write a report on the species, and secondarily based on whether the species lays eggs for overwintering while the parents estivate, or whether they remain active year round and bear live young.

It is important, again, to emphasize that what is known about species on Sphinx is more broadly defined by what we don’t know than what we actually do know.

Chipmunk

The Sphinxian chipmunk looks virtually nothing like its Terrestrial namesake, being the size of a small dog. The animal is a full-year active exothermic burrowing husker that lives off of the seed pods and fruits of the understory plant-life. The forelimbs and mid-limbs allow a little bit of arboreal movement. Its range appears to be tightly constrained by the picketwood environment. They appear to have a natural life span of two Sphinxian years, and are opportunists. Their burrowing ability allows them to dig through foundations and into greenhouses. In some areas of human settlements, they are on their way towards displacing Mankind’s oldest companion, the rat, as the greatest danger to household food storage and garbage disposal.

Cragsheep

A reclusive species referred to as a cragsheep has been spotted by aerial survey in the mountains defining the eastern border of the region that, based on photographic evidence, looks to be in the 100 kg range. The species itself follows the hexapedal body plan, but with the middle and forelimbs somewhat geared for grasping and climbing. The rear limbs and mid limbs allow the species to make impressive leaps, and it is native to the uplands and hilly regions. It is not known if it is an egg-laying or live birth reproductive animal, but given its size, it is assumed to be live birth. While the cragsheep is an herbivore, there appear to be no analogs to it native to the lower regions on the western side of the mountains.

Near Beaver

A Sphinxian mammal that appears to be distantly related to the chipmunk, these creatures live in aquatic and swampy biomes, and are omnivorous, but eat predominantly vegetable matter. In length, they are approximately 50 centimeters long, and their dentition is what gives them their name, though their body plan is less streamlined than a terrestrial beaver’s. The near beaver does bring down trees—avoiding the rockwoods—to make dams and convert sloughs into ponds. Subspecies of near-beaver have been found in every biome on Sphinx that humans have visited to date, save for the tundra and ice cap regions.

Range Bunny

The range bunny is the pseudomonotreme competitor for the niche occupied by the chipmunk; like the other Sphinxian pseudomonotremes it lays egg at the first rainy season, burrows, and hibernates on top of them throughout the winter. While not as active in the winter, and not as opportunistic, the range bunny is capable of fairly rapid population growth every spring, and is of some concern to the Royal Agricultural Services as a possible pest eating human food crops. Its range of diet includes most leafy plant structures, and it is not as tied to the picketwood biome as the chipmunk is. The range bunny is known for its two stage loping gait, and it relies on speed to get away from ground based predators. It naturally avoids the picket woods if it can, due to the threat of arboreal predators such as the condor owl.

Wood Rat

The wood rat is prey species of the crown oak biome, and is roughly 2 kg in mass. They are distinctly arboreal, and resemble mammalian six legged skinks in some ways. They are full-year active placental in their reproductive strategy, though there are anomalous reports calling them marsupials. It is not entirely certain if they’re native to the Tannerman Gulf biome or are immigrants moving with the increased range of the crown oak; they bear roughly the same resemblance to Sphinxian chipmunks that Terrestrial rats do to Terrestrial chipmunks. The creatures will gnaw on wood to keep their incisors sharp, and have been known to do damage to lumber products used for human use. The water-seal compound used for terrestrial lumber appears to be a candy lacquer for them, though it also kills them due to enzymatic incompatibility and intestinal blockage.

Tuskelope

The Tuskelope is a cold-weather adapted prey species, vaguely resembling a six-legged cross between a musk-ox and a boar; they stand anywhere from 1.3 to 1.8 meters high at the shoulder for an adult, with a peak weight of 350 kg. They have large tusks that they use to break up ice pack and to dig up roots. Their primary defense mechanism is to flee into scrub that larger predators cannot pursue into, and to turn tusks onto predators only when flight is not an option, or when faced with a predator that is taller than they are.

Tuskelope population densities are too low to support the hexapuma sightings in the Tannerman Gulf region. The best working hypothesis is that the hexapumas are recent interlopers, and the tuskelopes provided them with the calorie sources to spark a population boom, followed by a tuskelope population crash.

Condor Owl

The condor owl would strike any native of Old Earth as a particularly egregious case of “name does not fit the physical description of the animal.” It was, however, originally named by a xenoiologist from the Hesier System, where the original names had already been applied to some very strange creatures. Needless to say, it does not, in fact, resemble either an Old Earth condor or an owl—or, for that matter, a bat or a flying squirrel, which it more closely resembles. The condor owl is a crepuscular gliding or flying predator that attempts to swoop and catch prey, then drop it on rocks from a great height. It is a hexapedal Sphinxian mammal, with the fore-limbs specialized into wings, and folds of skin that give additional gliding and lifting surface when the midlimbs are extended, with the back four limbs holding grasping talons. The eyes are very large and forward facing, and are the most owl-like of its features.

A typical condor owl has a body mass of under 6 kilograms and a total body length in excess of 150 centimeters, and a wingspan of nearly twice that. The hide is covered in down, and the animal lays eggs and estivates over them through the winter. The condor owl often hunts in social groups of six to eight, and they have been known to arrange rocks with the jagged points up to better finish off dropped prey, a precursor to tool usage that bears further investigation.

Hexapuma

Hexapumas are the best indirect evidence that biomes have shifted recently. A hexapuma has a body length that can reach five meters in length, as much as half of that tail, and the largest specimens encountered have weighed 800 kilograms or more. Sphinxian Forest Service biologists class hexapumas as the native wildlife most dangerous to human inhabitants, in part because so little is known about them, save that they seem to have a shortage of prey animals, and have no compunctions about treating humans as a remedy to that problem.

What is currently known about hexapumas is that the range in size between (apparently) mature individuals is quite wide—in the Tannerman Gulf area, they routinely run 3.5 meters or longer in main body length, while closer to the equator, genetically related samples are as small as 2 meters long and half the body mass; it is thought that there is severe selection pressure on hexapumas to have smaller children to deal with a prey pattern shift to smaller prey animals; there are numerous adaptations on the hexapuma, ranging from the depth of its coat to its foot construction, that indicate it was originally adapted to a much colder climate.

The advisories on hexapumas are to avoid them if at all possible, and to notify the Sphinxian Forest Service immediately if one is sighted, or if scat or other indicators is known. In particular, the Sphinxian Forestry Service is interested in finding out what they eat, and how often they mate and where they raise their young.

Mountain Eagle

One of the handful of bird analogues of the planet Sphinx, the mountain eagle may in fact be an oviparous mammal that has evolved quills that function nearly identically to feathers. They are true flyers, as opposed to the condor owl, and have only been seen at a distance; they have two pairs of wings that between them make a single lifting surface, and in their flight patterns, tend to be gliders. They appear to be carrion feeders or opportunist feeders. Due to the higher temperatures on the eastern side of the Copperwall Mountains, they are more common there, and the eastern edge of the Tannerman Gulf region appears to be the westernmost edge of their range.

Peak Bear

The peak bear is found near the southern edge of the Tannerman Gulf area, and is native to the mountains forming that edge of the biome. Very little is known about the peak bear aside from the fact that it can locomote in a centauroid gait, and that it doesn’t seem to regard humans as much of a threat. It appears to be omnivorous, though the portion of its diet based off of plants versus prey animals is unknown at this time. Specimens that have been photographed have stood nearly 1.4 meters tall at the mid-hip, and 2 meters tall at the top of the head when in centauroid posture—overall body length has been in excess of 4 meters total. Peak bears may be the competing predator causing hexapumas to range farther north. While current land grants are more than 100 km away from the peak bear’s estimated range, it does represent a concern for the future expansion of human colonization.

SFS Advisories

Welcome to Sphinx

The Sphinxian Forestry Service has compiled a list of advisories for Sphinx so newcomers don’t get injured. Sphinx is a largely uninhabeted planet, with nearly 230 percent of the land area of Old Earth. These are advisories, the planet is untamed and there’s a lot we don’t know.

That being said, there are a number of things we do know, and they are dangerous to you.

Gravity, Geology and Atmosphere

Sphinx’s surface gravity can be dangerous to newcomers unaccustomed to a heavy gravity world. In addition to feeling that you’re carrying a third again your own body weight, your reflexes are going to be off. Things will not only take more effort to move, but will fall faster in a given span of time. It is entirely possible for a healthy adult to break their neck from falling out of a chair, or to injure themselves getting into bed. When estimating the dangers, think of the fall as being from 75 percent greater height than you would on Earth. Personal countergrav units are strongly recommended, but they won’t reduce the risks of objects falling on you.

Sphinx has an unusually thick mantle compared to planets of similar mass and diameter, which means it has lower tectonic activity than Meyerdahl and significantly lower tectonic activity than Quelhollow. This does not mean that the tectonics are as mild as Old Earth’s however. The Stubleford Traps in the northern hemisphere are estimated to be less than a million T-years old, and Richter scale 2 and 3 temblors are a weekly occurrence near many of the Sphinxian mountainous regions. Even in relatively stable locations like Tannerman Gulf, new construction for Sphinx needs to be properly quakeproofed, and the routine precautions of “When the ground shakes, be in the air if possible, and away from heavy objects if not” always applies.

While Sphinx has a higher atmospheric density than Old Earth’s, the higher gravity means that the rate of change in pressure as altitude increases is steeper. Normal Earth atmospheric pressure occurs at roughly 1600 meters. The upper range of human breathable atmosphere is around 3,000 meters, which is nearly 3,000 meters lower than the breathable threshold on Earth. Do not let your experience with atmospheric conditions on other planets put you at risk.

Be aware that leaving a high atmospheric pressure world will give a mild form of the bends as dissolved nitrogen is released from your blood. Sphinx’s CO2 percentage is higher than Earth’s, or Manticore’s, and can cause rapid breathing when someone isn’t fully adapted to the native atmosphere. If you suffer from any respiratory ailments or related issues, please ask your doctor about nanotech treatments to alleviate the adaptation discomfort of changing environments.

The other effect of Sphinx’s atmosphere is that sound will travel farther than you’re expecting it to, especially lower pitches, which can be disorienting for new arrivals.

We strongly advise the use of countergrav gear while you’re acclimating to Sphinx. Sphinx isn’t such a high gravity planet that countergrav is always necessary for mobility or comfort. It is still strongly recommended. Countergrav units are available to all new arrivals.

Wildlife

Over 90 percent of Sphinx is uninhabited, and much of the planet remains unexplored. Because of the very mountainous terrain, there are lots of pocket habitats and biomes. What we know about them is small, and humans are newcomers to Sphinx. Wildlife will surprise you, and even if you live in a large community, you’ll be encountering it daily.

Many Sphinxian animals are territorial, have large hunting ranges, and high caloric needs. Stripped of its scientific terms, this means that a hexapuma weighing 650 kg (some specimens are larger) needs to consume about 60 to 70 kg of meat per day. To you, a hexapuma is a six limbed predator that’s longer than a groundcar. To the hexapuma, you are a smallish single serving prey animal. To a peak bear, you are but a snack.

Humans are interlopers. Most Sphinxian predator species do not have millions of years of selection pressure to recognize you as a threat. In general, do not make eye contact, and understand that a predator that is looking at you is sizing you up as a meal, not trying to make a friend, and it may not be startled or terribly intimidated by a gun fired in warning.

There are a number of Sphinxian animals which have protected status, due to conservation efforts, concerns about species displacement with terrestrial imports, or because they merit further scientific study. The penalties for hunting protected species are quite stiff.

The Elysian rules, about minimizing the impact of humans on local wildlife and biomes, are in full effect on Sphinx. In over a thousand T-years, refinements of this policy have prevented large scale disruptions of planetary ecologies, and it forms the core of the Sphinxian Forestry Service’s ethos.

As a reminder, if you must shoot local wildlife, do it with a camera. If you encounter something you haven’t seen before, take photographs or video footage. You may use lethal force against an unknown animal only when human lives are in immediate danger. If you can move away, or fly away with countergrav, you are not in immediate danger.

Do send video footage and photographs of anything you encounter to the Sphinxian Forestry Service. We pay small bounties for documentation of new animal species.

Importation of Offworld Species

Much ink can be written about the hazards of reckless species introductions into new biomes. With Sphinx, all species stocks being introduced must have full genome transcriptions submitted to the Forestry Service for assessment of their biological impact parameters. Introduction of a prey animal without a predator to balance it can cause terrific strain on a biosphere; even something as innocuous as the introduction of fertile rabbits can cause a species dislocation, which will cause predators to change their ranging patterns searching for suitable prey. Because Sphinx has undergone a geologically recent species extinction period, this is of particular concern, as there are already a number of large predators seeking new prey ranges. Don’t let them think your homestead is one.

The majority of Sphinx’s native plants are non-toxic to humans, and Sphinxian animals can survive off human feedstocks. Sphinxian native plant stocks are less opportunistic than earth-based ones. Sphinx’s summers are long and cool on the coasts; inland they are hotter and drier, but do not reach the same levels of hot-and-dry that Old Earth does. Currently, the Sphinxian summer only produces five distinct growing seasons for terrestrial plant stocks; further agronomical research looks to take full advantage of the longer growing season by adjusting terrestrial crops to better match local conditions. Consult the Royal Agronomy Service if you wish to contribute to this project as a researcher, or by growing plots of test crops.

While there are ongoing attempts to domesticate Sphinxian herbivores, these are research projects at this time, and it’s expected that the bulk of the meat eaten will be from terrestrial imports.

Of particular concern is the introduction of ground covering plants like grasses. There is a lot we don’t know about Sphinxian plant life. We do know that grasses are not native to Sphinx, and that there is nothing on Sphinx adapted to eating them natively. We also know that grasses spread across Old Earth in a geological eyeblink 66 million years ago, and that spread left profound biome disruption in its aftermath. With the exception of the pig, every terrestrial meat animal has adapted to grassland living . . . and at the very least, introduction of grasses can cause soil to dry out, and, in large areas, change rainfall patterns. Please consult with the Sphinxian Forestry Service before introducing grasses outside of controlled areas; we have a number of varieties that have been tailored to be digestible to local wildlife with minimal problems, and which have slow germination patterns so that we can keep the intrusions under control.

Disease Risks

The Star Kingdom of Manticore has suffered a population drop due to two bouts of a “virgin field introduction” plague. A native Manticoran pathogen similar to a coronavirus has crossed over and proven infectious to humans. There was an initial outbreak outbreak of a respiratory illness roughly forty T-years ago. While it proved dangerous to the elderly, it was deemed to be no more severe than the common cold or a light influenza. What was not understood then, but is understood now, is that this pathogen was able to mix DNA with existing human coronaviruses; most of these mixes proved unstable and unable to reproduce. One of them proved to be both infectious and to have a protein shell that triggered extreme immunoglobin responses.

This more dangerous infection caused widespread fevers and pulmonary obstructions, as it infected the lungs and was airborne. As there was an extensive reservoir not only in humans, but in pigs raised for farm animals, it proved difficult to combat. The initial outbreak was in 1480 PD, and vaccines were cultured in 1484. A second outbreak of a new strain occurred in 1487 PD, which proved immune to the 1484 vaccine. A third strain emerged in 1489, but was less immediately dangerous. There is now a multi-strain vaccine that has proven to be more than 99.99 percent effective; this vaccine is part of your immigration inoculations.

While we deem it unlikely, we cannot rule out the possibility of another crossover virus. The Star Kingdom takes outbreak reports and new disease reports very seriously, and has extensive quarantine procedures, shown in pamphlet SKM-RNG-1490-PQ.

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