971-852
(2814 Trojan Reach, 0404 Tobia; E78A000-0; Amber Zone)
Geologists
estimate that this world was
habitable some 300,000
years ago during the time of the Ancients,
but in the Final War, the
planet's
crust was severely cracked. Many species became extinct, as
volcanic eruptions
blocked the sunlight for years. The world's tectonic plates are
fragile
to this day; volcanism remains extensive, and large areas are prone to
quakes and tsunamis.
At one time humans
of unknown ancestry lived here. When contacted in 504, these
island dwellers
subsisted on a few plants, supplemented by cannibalism - a practice
which
provided certain proteins not available in the local wildlife.
The IISS introduced livestock to provide a socially acceptable
source of protein. The inhabitants gradually changed from a
settled, agricuitural
culture to a more nomadic, herding one. To the Scout Service's
regret,
they persisted in eating the old and crippled humans.
971-852 was rarely visited, and when the Scouts last reappraised
the world in 852, the small population of islanders had vanished.
As the
fate of the cannibalistic natives has never been determined, 971-852
was
given an amber travel code, despite its current listing as an
uninhabited
world.
The 971-852 incident forced the IISS to reconsider its
non-interference policies. Although the Scouts worked to modify
the islander
culture with the thought of making it more amenable to offworld
contact,
their interference might well have been the cause of its
extinction. IISS
pre-stellar contact restrictions were strengthened as a result.
-TD20 tr