Schar's World is a terrestrial planet in the Milky Way near the Sullen Gulf. By the Idiran-Culture War it was a Dra'Azon Planet of the Dead[1] with a Quiet Barrier radius of 310 standard light-days.[2] By the Idiran-Culture War its Dra'Azon overseer was "Mr. Adequate".
Ecology[]
The war which caused the Dra'Azon to claim the planet as a Planet of the Dead and the following ice age destroyed many of the indigenous species. By the Idiran-Culture War, the remaining life included fish, but no mammals, in the seas, a hundred species of small insects, and lichen near the equator.[3]
Caretakers[]
The Dra'Azon allowed a small group of Involveds on the planet. By the Idiran-Culture War, the group was made up of four Changers with a pair being replaced every few years.[2] Their base was inside an entrance to the Command System.[3] The caretakers made a transmission off world at regular intervals.[4] They were allowed two laser rifles and a few small pistols. They were not allowed anti-gravity harnesses.[5]
The caretakers were officially allowed one inspection tour of the System each year. They would enter by the spiral tunnel from station four. During Horza's tenure, the caretakers made a number of unauthorized sojourns into the Command System even going so far as to switch on the power. The Dra'Azon erased all data recordings made in the tunnels for all trips.[5]
During one of Horza's trips the caretakers failed to activate the System's power properly. The resulting damage took weeks to repair. A similar accident occurred when inexperienced Idirans attempted to activate the power years later.[5]
History[]
The indigenous pan-human civilization reached the intermediate-sophisticated stage-three phase by 10,000 BCE. At the time the state of the art weaponry included fusion warheads delivered by trans-planetary missiles. One nation state built a subterranean railway bunker, the Command System. The species completely destroyed itself using biological weapons.[2]
A thousand years after the extinction, the Dra'Azon designated it a Planet of the Dead. 3000 years after that another periodic ice age started.[5]The ocean surfaces froze except around the equatorial band.[3]
During the Idiran-Culture War, a Culture Mind in distress was admitted to the Planet of the Dead while fleeing the Idirans. It took shelter in the Command System.[2] The Idirans sent two forces to capture the Mind. The first took casualties after being shot down by Mr. Adequate.[4] The second was the Changer Horza who conscripted Kraiklyn's Free Company for transportation.[3] In the resulting fracas the caretakers were all killed, and the two supposedly allied Idiran forces completed the destruction of the other.[6] The only survivors were Culture agent Balveda, Unaha-Closp, and the Mind.[7]
The planet was closed for the remainder of the war. The damage caused to the Command System during the fight for the Mind was totally repaired, and the remains and equipment left behind by the combatants and caretakers was compacted into a ball and buried under kilometres of glacial ice sheet near one of the poles. The GCU Prosthetic Conscience and a Contact team was permitted to visit after the war for four days, after which the Quiet Barrier was closed forever.[8]
References[]
- ↑ Consider Phlebas, prologue
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Consider Phlebas, State of play: one
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Consider Phlebas, Chapter 9
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Consider Phlebas, Chapter 2
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Consider Phlebas, Chapter 10
- ↑ Consider Phlebas, Chapter 13
- ↑ Consider Phlebas, Chapter 14
- ↑ Consider Phlebas, Dramatis personae