Panspermia

Exogenesis

            Anaya system (B56O-0000-0000-RPRO-RR) contains two asteroid belts and a research station.  The innovation here changed the entire face of the Solarian Culture.   The discovery of the Pangenesis spore revolutionized interstellar travel and energy production.  This clean source of bio-energy is renewable and has very little waste products.

            Pangenesis spore were first discovered during a mapping expedition.  The survey vessel, Magnus, entered the system and noticed several asteroids producing there own thermal energy.  Upon closer inspection they saw that the surfaces of these asteroids were covered with layer of blue green material that was the source of the thermal energy.  Upon studying the sample brought back by the robotic probe it was determined that the layer of material was a plant.

The plant was converting the minerals in the asteroids into energy that allow the plant to thrive in the harsh environment of space.  Further studies came to the conclusion that it could be used as a power source.  An intense program followed which produced a pure strain of Pangenesis spores with property need to power a starship.

During this time the plant grows in mass until it reaches a size where it is capable of producing a single seed.  At this point, the heat produced during the growing cycle increases until the plant explodes expelling the seed from its host.  Removal of the seed prevents this from happening allowing the growth cycle to continue without harm to the plant.  This thermal reaction during its entire lifecycle can be tapped, thus making it a clean renewable source of power with simple mechanical devices.

The spore’s photosynthesis can convert any radiation given off by a star into the energy need for its growth. The food derived from the minerals is rather simple and is found in every star system inhabited by the Solarians.   As a byproduct the plant generates massive amounts of heat. One ton of biomass is equal to the output of one eighteen ton fusion reactor.

The bio-reactor is basically an atomic reactor in its design.  Water is passed over the containment vessel for cooling purposes, which in turn is converted into steam which powers a steam turbine.  Without the shielding need for radiation the reactors are much smaller than normal fission reactor.  A small port in the top of the containment vessel allows solar radiation in. By controlling the amount of radiation let into the reactor, one can control the output of thermal energy produced.  This allowed the Solarian to build bigger and bigger ships.

“Wild” Pangenesis grows at a predictable rate while commercial grade spores are designed to produce far more thermal energy per pound while using less ‘plant food’.  This resulted in two explosions during the early stages of the eugenics program.  A crash on Karenna has shown that Pangenesis can grow on planets with standard atmospheres.  It also has proven that commercial spores take on a plant like appearance on these worlds.  The crash site is known as the Fire Garden.

The Crash Site is located in a desert region of the planet and is now a tourist attraction.  The Solarian believed at the time of the crash that the spores had burned up on reentry however that was not the case.  Within a month of the crash, an area of thirty kilometers in diameter was seeded by the spores. During the day time, temperatures around the site can reach 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  This caused atmosphere disturbances which brought it to the attention of the Karennan authorities.   To contain the spores a specially designed dome was placed over the site to regulate the amount of sunlight reaching the plants.  The site can only be visited at night since the harsh temperatures produced by the Pangenesis plants during the day.

On Tonga (G25G-867F-7151-XPOO-OE), historical data retrieved from the floating city of Aisha states a starship crashed on their planet.  This ship contained the following technology that they reversed engineered:  Pangenesis reactor, gravitonics, replicators, beam weapons and advanced computer technology.  This technology was used to create Aisha and escape the devastation caused by an ecological disaster of their own creation.  It is unclear whether the ship was Solarian or another race since the timeline indicated in the data places the arrival around the time Solarian first began to use Pangenesis reactors in their ship.  Like the Solarian, the Tongan refined the plant and created a much higher yield per ton of biomass (1 to 25).  They have also slowed the plant’s lifecycle allowing longer times between seed extraction.

The Solarian are unaware of the planet and its use of Pangenesis as a power source.  DNA studies have also indicated the plant used by the Tongan may not belong to the same source discovered by the Solaria.  But purification of the Tongan strain may have caused this anonymity in the DNA however.