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Arkady 2 |
Arkady 2 is the only Terragen inhabited planet in the Toke system. Don't be fooled by it's name, it was reluctantly changed over 2000 years ago because of a regional Galactic Trade court order to do so. (This unusual situation came about because of a nearby and similar planet called Arkady, resulting in space-cargo being sent to the wrong planets. The original planet Arkady (Nepsis System) was first registered with the local 'galactic naming office' over 1034 years before.)
although there are many planets accidentally given the same name, and few powers that can enforce any order on it, here we have an interesting exception. While the NoCoZo has no rules against confusing naming per se, there are sometimes rules against malicious namespace infringement (trademark rules). In this case Arkady Nepsis sued Arkady Toke for trade confusion, and Arkady Toke was reluctant to engage in a drawn out legal battle to show that the name was not intended to sabotage trade, but simply added the '2' (which bionts always forget anyway). The Institute of Galactography and the Union for Logical Naming, who had supported the suit, were reputedly happy about it.
Arkady 2 is famous for its strange Terragen dwellers known as the Khira, who 2544 planetary years ago decided that high-fashion was getting more and more elaborate exotic metal implants and bio-enhancers. Minor enhancements of course are commonplace but the Khira go to such extremes that some of the most fashionable people on the planet are only 0.001% Terragen now. Some of the inhabitants are now huge and weigh tens of thousands of kilos due to their oversized enhancements.
Khria have by now mostly done away with traditional cities, instead developing "congregation grounds" and various settlement parks. A few megastructure cities exist, but are mostly inhabited by the smaller Conservatives (max weight 10 tons).
The planet's AI god 'Short But Sweet' has done nothing to intervene since this fashion started, it recently admitted it was actually quite flattered buy the Khria's insistence on developing such extreme enhancements. The AI has strongly denied starting this fashion for its own amusement.
Some of these enhancements are fairly well known in the outskirts of the Middle Region, probably due to their ridiculous nature. I have included an example Info-clip from the planets media while I was visiting Arkady2's capitol city Arkadia.
Other interesting features of the planet are its large speed-flite track (4500 km long), its relatively high gravity, and the preference of its inhabitants to walk backwards.
A booming business is robotic environment restoration, handling the inevitable wear and tear from the Khira. Some Khira have even acquired symbiotic robotic swarms following in their tracks, repairing damage and handling possible lawsuits.
Author- Nr Shush (Independent Interstellar Travel Authors Assoc.)
