Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 22-1

This planet is one where we almost screwed up.

It’s a very nice planet, although it has only scattered landmasses, most of them only a few km-sq. On the land, there is not a single sign of civilization.

On the above-water land.

Once we sent probes beneath the surface, we found a drowned civilization that, rather than actually drowning, had begun to thrive under water.

Signs show that the water is retreating again.  I wonder what will happen to the water-people now?

We left them a polite note. I felt a bit guilty about almost invading them accidentally.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 22-2

Even if we could breathe the atmosphere on this planet, I’m not sure we’d want to colonize it.

We can’t: low O2 & high argon & CO make it uninhabitable.

But that was obvious already from the HUGE SWARMS OF INSECTS swarming over more than half the planet’s surface.

I went into space for a reason. There are no bugs in space.

We think they’re non-sentient.  We sent several probes and sample-collectors on the theory that the place might have something we could use.

I spent an hour in the shower afterwards.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 22-3

This planet was just barely within the livable range of its sun, and if we were to colonize it, it would have to be with Alaskans, Scandinavians, and Russians.

There IS a narrow band of warmth around the equator, and it looks as if it stays clear for three-quarters of the year, but the rest of the planet – a small one, on the scale of livable bodies – is covered in snow and ice.

There is animal life here but, unsurprisingly, no visible civilization.

We left probes as a just-in-case.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 22-4

Sometimes I’m just glad we can’t colonize a place for solid, scientific reasons.  This planet is one of those.

The water is low across large portions of the planet, with only a few deeps and a few rises – none high enough to be called mountains.

The tidal pull of its single moon and the shallow water means that much of the planet is a tidal mudflat, filled with insects.

The CO2-based atmosphere is un-breathable, even if one wanted to squelch around in the mud.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 21-1

This planet looks as if it was habitable – and habitated! – at some point.  Vast structures stand empty on the highest points, while much of the rest of the planet is covered with a rust-red scum.

Three small areas still looked livable, and on two of those, we found much smaller civilization-signs – tiny buildings and 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.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 21-2

After a certain point, you learn to recognize the look of a colony settled from another planet.  You end up with a high-tech grouping in a small area.

This is the first such we’ve seen on this circuit, and to be honest, although it fits in our qualifications, 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 six-limbed creatures who are farming it seem to thrive.

I wonder, though, where the rest of their species is.  I don’t see any base of production for those plows or the plascrete buildings.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 21-3

This planet was one of those “If we didn’t know it was inhabited, we’d never believe it” sorts.  

Initial scans show a swampy, wet planet, with no real oceans but several inland seas and a great deal of murky swampland & dark, damp forests.  They also showed very few heat signatures and almost nothing in the way of construction.

Our first probes, on the other hand, showed a large and sprawling population of damp, green, cold-blooded people living in short, mostly-buried buildings in and around the swamps.

We sent a polite greeting, but not before they had sent one to us.