THE SCI-FI WORLD THREAD

Sentient Species: Humans

Humans come from a planet called "Earth," or rather from a solar system that they call that of "Sol."

They came on a very large spaceship they call a "colony ship," in "suspended animation," which apparently means that they used science to freeze themselves somehow in such a way that they did not age nor otherwise change in their long trip between stars.

Humans are in a distant orbit near their new home system's fourth planet.

The fifth planet of the system is a large gas giant, slightly less massive than Jupiter back home, with a numerous family of moons and a ring made of boulders and chunks of water ice. The atmosphere is a pleasant blue-green and the northern hemisphere features a huge, persistent storm. Occasional aurorae can be seen at both poles, caused by the interactions of the planet's magnetic field with the stellar wind of the system's star.

As the humans approached the stellar system, an automated process awakened a minimal command crew, medical team, and flight/navigation team.  Of the 14 people scheduled to wake up, 12 of them had survived the process; which was better than predicted.

The navigation team immediately made a plan to dump velocity, including a complex reverse-slingshot around the gas giant, then the seventh planet (a large iron-core planet covered in frozen carbon dioxide, methane, and water), and finally dropped into a stable, though distant orbit around the fourth planet.  It was chosen because, of the three planets identified to be in the Goldilocks Zone, it was the closest in mass to Earth, and with a similar water to land ratio.  The polar ice caps were considerably larger than those that Earth had when they left, even larger than Earth had historically, but the equatorial lands clearly had liquid water.

Studying the planet from orbit, it is clear to the scientists that the planet has life similar to Earth's.  At least, the bulk of the land had chlorophyll-based life, and the oxygen to carbon dioxide ratio implied some sort of fauna that consumed the oxygen output of the flora.

Their largest telescope was trained on the planet, looking for signs of large animals or maybe even civilization when the most junior of the scientists screamed and insisted that it be reoriented.  "The second planet," he said, "is finally ... is finally out from behind the star enough to see clearly."  He gasped, trying to catch his breath -- he was hyperventilating.  "Artificial light.  Radio signals.  I'm not sure, ... I think ... artificial satellites."

Sentient species: The Viddan

The fifth planet has a sentient species which call themselves the Viddan, which in their language means "the drummers."

The gas giant has large, slow-moving, floating gasbag jellyfish creatures that come in many sizes, but which average the size of a human sports stadium.

The Viddan live/ride upon these creatures, often sending messages/music to other settlements by drumming on the tight gasbags of the creatures upon which they live.

Sometimes there are updrafts strong enough to take gas bags and their Viddan riders above the cloudtops, where they can see the stars. Since prehistoric times they have told stories of ancient heroes who flew so high they reached the sky, to talk to the stars and sun. Other stories tell of demons lurking in the depths, eager to devour anyone who falls.

A Viddan whose earned-name is High-Flyer-Moon-Listener saw a strange object in the sky.  It travels horizon to horizon east to west, in only six four-breaths, moving faster even than the meteor he once saw.  Seventeen four-breaths later, it reappears, once again traveling east to west, taking eight four-breaths.  He does not see it again.

Listener drummed out "sky object, not-sun, not-star, not-moon, not-meteor, not-comet.  A conundrum."  Nearly all of the Viddans greeted this announcement with apathy.  They made the brief humor-sound at Listener's aberrant hobby.  One drummed, "High-Flyer-Moon-Listener consumes air with too little ammonia.  He imagination-sees."