Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 26

From space, this place looks like a glitter-filled lava lamp, the sort of thing you see only in college dorms.

It’s crazy.  The clouds are filled with some sort of metallic shine that reflects sunlight; looking past the cloud cover, the land and water, the plants and even the mountains are, too.

Readings suggest no sentient habitation and a breathable atmosphere, and so we found a place where the plant life looked the least shiny and sent down a team.

I hope it’s not gold.  It’s too pretty to be mined and picked over. On the other hand…

Star Log Sec7 Sub26

The impression given by this planet is that it never achieved space flight, despite being more heavily industrialized than any planet I have ever seen.  Perhaps they do not care.

The media we see of the denizens indicates that they are descended from burrowers, not tree-climbers, and, indeed, although they have built up, they have also dug down quite far.

It’s an ugly planet, but the media of the subsurface looks beautiful.  I almost wish I could go down, instead of just sending a probe.

Star Log Sec7 Sub26

I had to physically stop Steb from going down to the surface, nineteen protocols or no.

“They don’t REALLY look like animal-people,” I tried, but Steb was unconvinced.

“Ears!  Tails! Bipeds! FUR!”

I had visions of Steb trying to pet someone and starting an interstellar incident.

Steb aside, the planet is post-Industrial but pre-space, filled with lovely people, with wide semi-inhabited places and very few city-like structures.