Summary

Aethel is the 4th planet of the Noctua 7469 system, located at the edge of the Junkstorm.

The planet has a habitable nature and breathable atmosphere as well as liquid water oceans and comfortable temperatures. In fact, it is one of the rare naturally occurring earth-like planets that could have been colonized with only minor terraforming. The nitrogen content is slightly higher than standard atmosphere, but still within the range that humans can adapt to.

There is indigenous plant-life that resembles Earth, such as grass, bushes and trees. In addition, there is a unique type of crystalline flora found mostly in caves and in the deep oceans.

There are no animals on Aethel, and simple multi-cellular organisms are the highest life-forms native to the planet.

History

Originally scheduled for colonization, Aethel was left alone after the prospector team found it poor in natural resources and subject to electro-magnetic interferences from the crystal plants.

The discovery of the ruined alien space station in its orbit also played a role in this decision, as well as the fact that the colonies on the other habitable planets in the Junkstorm were showing great promise.

As a result of all these factors, Aethel was put aside, marked as „habitable, potential future colony“ and left alone.

A few years later - 44 years before the events in this book - pirates looking for a temporary place to hide found a large empty space in the alien husk that their ship could easily fly in and out of. At first they parked it there on occasion, then stored some supplies.

Stolen story; please report.

Some time later - accounts differ when exactly - they shared their discovery with fellow pirate crews and several crews decided together to turn it into a more permanent supply depot. Within two years, it had a small crew permanently stationed there as almost all the time one or more pirate ships were docked for repairs, maintenance and resupply.

With the pirates came occasional visits to the planet surface. First the pirate crews and then the non-pirate inhabitants of Binary Bloom came to Aethel to relax and enjoy the scenery.

The Crystal Flora

A unique feature of Aethel is the crystal flora, a type of plant-life that consists of crystalline structures that capture heat instead of sunlight and convert it into energy used to drive the crystallization process.

As these plants do not require light, the crystal flora is found mostly in caves and the subterranean ocean (see below). On the surface, the carbon-based organic plants are can grow and adapt more quickly and so dominate the ecosystem. Occasional crystal plants can be found here and there, especially in small niche environments.

Where the density of crystal flora is high, which is mostly underground, a low hum can be heard from them, a side-product of their version of photosynthesis.

Hydrocarbon Seas

Several networks of vast, interconnected caverns exist under the surface of Aethel, and are home to an underground ocean filled with a complex mixture of organic compounds. This are called the hydrocarbon seas, and they offer unique resources and harbor microscopic lifeforms adapted to this unusual environment.

The hydrocarbon seas are largely unexplored, with only a few caves documented by the prospectors.