A ship with a mixed crew of deathworlder and havenworlder scientists, including a few humans, find a solar system that is a nearly a duplicate of what the Earth's solar system was like in the very beginning of the Jurassic period. The difference being, there were three inhabitable planets instead of only one. Where in the Earth's solar system, aka Sol, aka the Terran system, the planets Mars and Venus were uninhabitable, one being lifeless without an atmosphere and the other being with a thick, toxic, acidic atmosphere with high winds and deadly pressure, in this system, three of the four rocky inner planets were roughly all the same size, had strong magnetospheres similar to Earth's, similar atmospheres to what the Earth's had been like in the early Jurassic period, and all three had water and a lot life. The only real differences, is two were haven worlds and one was a Jurassic-Park-Like deathworld. -- Dinos
[AN: True facts - Mars is closer in mass to our moon than Earth's, so it's kind of amazing that it has an atmosphere at all. I'm going to fudge the numbers for you though :D ]
It wasn't entirely rare to find two planets inside the "goldilocks zone", but it was rarer to find life on both of them. Therefore, the new system was beyond interesting as a "threefer". Owing to their relative positions, the Planetary Survey crew analysed the most outward, then the most inward. The one life-bearing planet in the middle orbit was on the far side of the sun to the Thesis Analysis, so it was left for last.
After two Class One Havenworlds, expectations were high for the third in their queue. The Humans were very excited. For every planet with life, the odds were high to find intelligent life. Which meant new friends. Humans did love making new friends.
Human Pyn was on the observation deck, avoiding all the instruments in favour of staring at the viewscreen as she stimmed by bounding about like a flea on a griddle. "Hey diddle diddle, we're headed for the middle," she repeated, giggling. "The last two were empty, but this one's gotta be a winner. Come on spinner."
Human Kush, used to, Pyn's bovine excrement, rolled his eyes. "Odds even for some life, and you'll be able to pet it... but intelligent life doesn't have to happen."
"You nasty sort, spoilsport..." Pyn bounced in place, eyes glued to the slowly growing orb on the screen. The rest of her was incapable of rest. "I see clouds!"
"Of course you do," said Kush. "We know it's habitable. I'm using the long-range scanners to see what's there beyond 'clouds'."
"That'd do me harm, but I know three's the charm."
"Only in Human fairy tales," muttered Kush. It was hard to not like Pyn.Especially since she rhymed when excited. It was kind of cute. If it wasn't for her chronic sleep issues, he might consider cohabiting. Not that they weren't nearly cohabiting anyway because Pyn was the kind of person to wake their friend up with their nonsense at ungodly hours of the morning. Then again, it was probably better that they weren't cohabiting because such behaviour was reasonable grounds for murder.
At least Kush got a warning whenever Pyn unlocked his door. Then he could mentally prepare to see that smiling face and greet whatever mental acrobatics she was on with, "This is my sleepytime..." Even a weighted blanket couldn't keep her down when she got hyped about something.
Twenty minutes before Pyn said, "I see green! I see blue! Oceans and plants! It's true, it's true!" Kush found evidence of plantlife on the scanners.
He added, "I've found animal life, but no sign of civilisations just yet."
Pyn just started chanting, "Friends, friends, friends, friends," as she bounced.
Kush shook his head as he worked. At least he knew Pyn would be sleeping tonight. She'd wear herself out before they made the decision to make planetfall. The rest of the analysis team, also used to this, were adding their guesses to the shipwide betting pool as to when Pyn would run out of her internal power.
There was no sign of civilisation big enough to make clusters of light on the darkside. There weren't any lights on the darkside that were inconsistent with wildfires. Kush hated to step on Pyn's hopes but... "I'm not getting any signs of intelligent life, Pyn. Worse, it's a Deathworld. Full livesuits."
"Aaaaawwww..." Pyn whined.
She fell asleep on the survey shuttle down. Kush woke her up so she could pet the dinosaurs.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / rolffimages]
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