ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...

[Johnny1A.2]

LATER.

What it was that motivated the Thak-Tarak to create a ruby massing over sixty thousand metric tons, it clearly was only half-completed. The entire location has the unmistakable 'look' of a half-finished construction site. It is as if the Thakarians changed their mind in the midst of whatever the project was, and just left the immense disk of artificial ruby sitting in place.

None of the Thakarians or Thakarian-descended Humans remaining on Veranis after the Terrestrian takeover have any idea what the site was meant to be. The people who did know are either deceased, or have long since departed from Veranis, by 2124. A very few of the oldest local Veranisians, mostly living on the other islands of the Archipelago, can remember when the site was under construction. These people were children at the time, and they never knew anything about the why of it all, though they can remember when the Thakarian construction teams suddenly departed the site, leaving it half-done. These people are elderly in 2124, but some living memory of the incident still remains.

While ruby, as such, has little monetary value on Earth or Thakaria, the same is not true of Veranis. Rubies and sapphires (the same basic substance, with different impurities giving different colors) are very, very valuable among most of the cultures of Veranis, including the relatively advanced states of the Northern Continent. The immense mass of high-quality ruby on the island of Nyyshtris remains in place, however, in spite of the theoretical value it would have if it could be removed.

Under the former Thak-Tarak regime, the ruling powers refused to permit anyone to remove anything from Nyyshtris. They would permit visitors, for whatever reason, but not attempts to remove any of the locally valuable ruby material. Their Terrestrian successors have other concerns, but the ruby remains in place even so.

The disk of ruby is surrounded by a thin, but immensely strong, layer of transparent silicate plastic. To remove any of the corundum beneath, one would have to break through this layer, which would require heavy tools or other equipment, or significant paranormal abilities. Trying to crack through with hand tools is simply not practical (though a sequential combination of the right acids and bases might dissolve it away, this would present enormous practical issues).

While visiting the island is allowed, moving heavy equipment in would attract attention, and many people have a vested interest in the artificial ruby mine remaining unmined. For the Terrestrians, it is a desire to avoid further economic disruptions (in a Veranisian economy that is already undergoing tumultuous convulsions). Owners of ruby mines and stockpiles have no desire to see the value of their property undercut. On top of that, those wise enough to remember that there is no guarantee the Thak-Tarak will not eventually regain control of Veranis would rather not earn bad will from that direction.

In practice, of course, even if someone could find a practical way to remove large amounts of the corundum, cut it into gems, and bring it to market, the only result would be to destroy the market. The immense artificial ruby masses in the tens of thousands of tons. More gems could be carved from it than have been mined in all the history of Veranis. Gaining access to the 'treasure' would result in rubies going from precious stones on Veranis to cheap pebbles, not much if any more valuable than they are on Earth or Thakaria.

Still, there are plenty of economically naive people in the Archipelago who know about the site, and dream empty dreams about it.

The Three Power Commission is very interested in the site, not because of the 'value' of the vast ruby disk, but because their intelligence staff would very much like to know just what the Thak-Tarak Thakarians thought they were doing on Nyyshtris. Just what was under construction there? Why did the Thakarians begin the project, and why did they stop? While synthesizing corundum is neither difficult nor expensive for interstellar technology, creating a sixty thousand ton mass of the material in one place is still a major project.

The site is certainly visually striking. When the warm white-golden rays of Dyaxor A fall across the translucent mass of crystal, it blazes with a red fire that is visible for many kilometers across the waters (the site is near the shore of the island). Pictures and holographs of the disk are popular all over Veranis. Even if nobody knows why it exists, it is definitely beautiful.

Nobody seriously believes, though, that the strange structure was created out of aesthetic motivations. The Commission intelligence officers are always trying to find out more, but nobody on Veranis seems to have the requisite information.

MORE LATER.

[Johnny1A.2]

LATER.

The waters of the Southeastern Archipelago are among the most biologically productive on Veranis. Continental shelf is often richly diverse and productive, being shallow enough for solar energy to penetrate to the bottom, but with plentiful nutrients flowing in from the land and a variety of different niches and environments. The Archipelago is a classic exemplar. Some of the richest fishing waters on Veranis are here, as are mussels and various arthropods, and more than one harvestable, edible sea plant besides the drug-plant for larsh.

These waters are also home to a species of cetacean that is scientifically fascinating to biologists from Earth. In fact, several interesting cetacean species are to be found in the oceans of Veranis, including one, found in the bays and rivers of the Southlands, that appears to be in the process of readapting to land life.

The Archipelagan Dolphin (which is the common colloquial name used by Terrestrians for this particular species) is purely oceanic, and in fact is semi-pelagic, thriving most of the time in the sunlight shallows of the Eastern Archipelago, but known to dive deep into the abyssal waters to the east and south when hunting for food.

The Archipelagan Dolphin is larger than most Terrestrian dolphins, but is definitely of the Family Delphinidae. Genetic analysis indicates that their closest Terrestrian kin are the orcas, but the Archipelagan Dolphin does not much resemble the orca. They are not quite as large, averaging about 4.8 meters in length in adult male specimens, though lengths in exces of five meters are known. Females are actually about the same length as the males, or only slightly less, but are somewhat less massive and muscular. Their coloration (in both sexes) runs toward shades of gray.

The general behavior pattern of the Archpelagan Dolphin is to 'live' and rest and play and interact socially with their conspecifics in the shallow warm waters of the Archipelago. For hunting purposes, though, they are known both to dive deep in the open ocean, preying on various deep-water animals, and also to come inland through rivers and to prey on fish and small animals in the fresh water environment as well.

The Archipelagan Dolphin shows a remarkable tolerance for differing salt levels. They appear to be able to tolerate fresh water almost indefinitely, though they definitely prefer the salty waters of the ocean. In common with their Terrestrian kin, the Archipelagan Dolphin has a well-developed biosonar faculty. In fact, Terrestrian biologists have determined that their natural sonar is substantially more sensitive and developed than their Earthside kin.

(This knowledge helped conceal the greater strangeness of this species for some time.)

The Archipelagan Dolphin is normally found only in the Southeastern Archipelago of the North Continent, or in the deep waters to the east and south of that area. For whatever reason, they have not expanded into what would appear to be suitable environments elsewhere on Veranis, and Archipelagan Dolphins forcibly moved will immediately swim back toward the Archipelago, even if released halfway around the planet. They seem able to function elsewhere with little difficulty, and most of these 'removed' individuals have been observed to eventually return safely to their home waters.

The lifespan of the Archipelagan Dolphin is substantially greater than that of their Terrestrian kin. Natives of the Archipelago report that these dolphins can easily live a century or more, and individuals have been observed to live much longer. The locals have a number of legends about these creatures, such as that they cannot be trapped or held in captivity.

This last is not entirely true, but it is true that they have a tendency to escape from what should be inescapable containment. This too was a clue to their true strangeness.

The thing that makes the Archipelagan Dolphin most unusual is that they are an example of something rare in the natural world: a naturally psionically-active animal species.

MORE LATER.

[Johnny1A.2]

LATER.

For details about the Archipelagan Dolphin see here: Archipelagan Dolphins.

The Archipelagan Dolphin is found throughout the waters of the Southeastern Archipelago. Relations between the humanoids of the region and the Dolphins have varied considerably from place to place and time to time. Some fishermen detest the Dolphins as competitors for the catch (and effective ones at that), and at times this has been violent. Some pods of Archipelagan Dolphins have become quite adept at removing fish from nets and other fishing methods.

In other parts of the Archipelago, Vertarans and Dolphins have formed working partnerships, with some pods actively herding fish into the nets, in exchange for a share of the catch (and sometimes other tasty tidbits, many Archipelagan Dolphins are very fond of red meat).

In general, though the locals of the islands and the Dolphins have coexisted reasonably well for many thousands of Terrestrian years.

When the Thakarians conquered Veranis, they showed little interest in the Archipelagan Dolphins at first. It was some decades after their initial arrival that a Thakarian scientist realized that these animals had a wild, untrained psionic potential.

Shortly thereafter, Thak-Tarak military personnel began a regular harvest of the creatures. Though the Archipelagan Dolphins had a reputation of being almost impossible to capture, that was when using native Veranisian techniques. [1]

The Thakarians had little difficulty capturing and holding the creatures, taking them alive by the hundreds over the course of several decades. So effective and thorough was the long-term Thakarian capture operation that it significantly reduced the total population in the wild.

Terrestrian naturalists estimate that over a forty (Terrestrian) year period, the Thak-Tarak regime probably captured and removed well over half of the total population of the species. They were mostly taken alive and then removed from Veranis entirely, taken to unknown destinations for unknown purposes.

No Thakarian-descended Human on Veranis knows where the creatures were taken, or for what purpose, or at least, if someone does they do not admit to the knowledge. This is yet another subject the Three Power Commission intelligence staff would like to find more information about.

The removal operations were continuing right up until the Terrestrians took control of Veranis, in approximately 2105. The rate of removal had slowed, if only because there were fewer specimens left in the wild to take, and the remaining wild Dolphins were the precisely those best at evading detection and capture.

Still, Terrestrian naturalists estimate that had this continued, the entire species might have been effectively removed from Veranis, with so few left in the wild as to take the population below the level of reproductive viability, perhaps in no more than another Terrestrian decade or two.

Still, the removal operation was interrupted, and since 2105, the wild population has begun a significant recovery. The species has a relatively modest reproductive rate, being highly k-selected, and Terrestrian naturalists estimate that it might require centuries for the population to completely recover to pre-harvesting levels. They have made a good start, however.

Older locals in the Archipelago, who can remember the time before the Thak-Tarak began to remove the creatures, report that the Dolphins are much 'wilder' now, and far more shy of humanoids in general. The former 'partnerships' to be found here and there in the Archipelago are, for now, a thing of the past.

MORE LATER.


[1] About TL5 just before the arrival of the Thakarians.