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Encyclopaedia Orellia: Data File 001 - The Orell System
Last Updated: 17 May 3046
500 years ago the Human colony ship Dauntless, captained by James Orell III, made an emergency random hyperjump to escape attack from an Inlixi marauder. It was the last desperate act of a man determined to save his 3000-strong complement of colonists and he knew full well the jump could have landed the Dauntless in the heart of a sun -- or worse.
But the renowned Orellian luck ran true to form and although crippled, its jump engines beyond repair,
the Dauntless reappeared in what is now the Orellian System, named after the captain who 'discovered' it.
But this was no ordinary star system. The colonists had discovered the home of a long-vanished alien
race, the Chi'kkren, aliens so advanced they had begun to convert their core system into what Humans
call a Dyson Sphere. (Essentially, a completed Dyson Sphere is a shell built around a star to collect
as much energy as possible. Such a proposal was originally proposed by Human scientist Freeman Dyson,
although the concept was originally conceived by SF writer Olaf Stapledon in his novel Star Maker in 1937).
However, for whatever as yet undiscovered reason the Chi'kkren abandoned both their construction and their home
system, vanishing (so far) without trace.
In commencing the beginning of the Sphere building, the aliens had created a maze of Skyhook-style Expressways,
connecting every planet in the system. This incredible advance on Skyhook systems proposed by NASA and other
scientists in Earth's 20th century -- and brought to life in fiction by authors such as Arthur C. Clarke -- had
been taken well beyond the abilities of current Human technological ability. These Expressways, maintained by
hundreds of robots, literally link the planets together as they orbit the system's sun, regulated by highly
advanced systems somewhere deep within the bowels of the outermost, artificial world -- Technos.
One side effect of the tube system that connects all the planets is that while all the planets still orbit the
sun, planetary spin is minimal on most of them. The exceptions are Aqua, where the tube system connects to a
water-bound relay point, and Technos, where the spin may be a requirement for the operation of the hyperspatial
'cannon', better known as 'The Spike'.
It is believed the 15 kilometre-high 'Spike' once provided some means for the creation of a hyperspatial
gateway enabling transportation to other parts of the Chi'kkren Empire in other star systems. So far, scientists
have been unable to confirm this theory.
For climatic reasons there is some planetary spin, but this is necessarily slow as the tubes adjust in a complicated
mesh to reflect the change of position for their base points in relation to all other connection points.
For more information about Dyson Spheres, try the Dyson Sphere FAQ |
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