BY LETTER
Scaramouche
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| EuCytherean garden world, and homeworld of the xenosophont Riposte. | |
System - Data Panel | |
| System | - Names: Pantalone - Location: Periphery - Distance from Sol: 6,070 ly (J2000) - Constellation: Cassiopeia |
|---|---|
| Star | - Names: Pantalone, YTS 2678-4399-875 - Physical characteristics: - Mass: 0.805 x Sol - Radius: 0.758 x Sol - Spectral type: K2 V - Luminosity: 0.359 x Sol (bolometric) - Temperature: 5,131 Kelvin - Rotation period: 30.79 days - Age: 3.378 billion years |
| System: | 1) Scaramouche: CapnoCytherean - Semi-major axis: 0.374 AU - Orbital period: 93.1 days - Eccentricity: 0.058 - Mass: 1.099 x Earth - Radius: 1.038 x Earth 2) Columbine:LacuTundral AquaGaian - Semi-major axis: 0.653 AU - Orbital period: 215 days - Eccentricity: 0.054 - Mass: 0.873 x Earth - Radius: 0.967 x Earth 3) Harlequin: CapnoArean - Semi-major axis: 1.119 AU - Orbital period: 1.319 years - Eccentricity: 0.068 - Mass: 0.412 x Earth - Radius: 0.782 x Earth 4) Pierrot: CapnoArean - Semi-major axis: 1.574 AU - Orbital period: 2.201 years - Eccentricity: 0.016 - Mass: 0.309 x Earth - Radius: 0.722 x Earth 5) Rhodomont: AmmoJovian - Semi-major axis: 5.372 AU - Orbital period: 13.87 years - Eccentricity: 0.028 - Mass: 195.7 x Earth - Radius: 10.40 x Earth 6) Climene: CryoazuriJovian - Semi-major axis: 10.375 AU - Orbital period: 37.24 years - Eccentricity: 0.030 - Mass: 59.01 x Earth - Radius: 7.576 x Earth 7) Polchinelle: CryoazuriNeptunian - Semi-major axis: 17.414 AU - Orbital period: 80.99 years - Eccentricity: 0.062 - Mass: 29.97 x Earth - Radius: 4.077 x Earth Pantalone Disk: - Inner radius: 20 AU - Outer radius: 100 AU - Important objects: |
Scaramouche - Data Panel | |
| Names: | Scaramouche |
|---|---|
| Orbital characteristics: | - Semi-major axis: 0.374 AU - Orbital period: 93.1 days - Eccentricity: 0.058 |
| Physical characteristics: | - Type: AcidiTerrestrial CapnoCytherean - Mass: 6.565E+24 kg (1.099 x Earth) - Radius: 6,612.2 km (1.038 x Earth) - Density: 5,421 kg/m^3 - Mean surface acceleration: 10.02 m/s^2 (1.022 g) - Rotation period: 56.24 days - Solar day: 142.0 days - Albedo: 0.775 - Mean insolation: 3,491 W/m^2 (2.565 x Earth) - Mean surface temperature: 751 K |
| Atmosphere: | - Surface pressure: 10.32 MPa - Composition: 96.9% carbon dioxide, 3.1% nitrogen, trace amounts of other gasses. |
Overview
Scaramouche is a EuCytherean gardenworld and the homeworld of the xenosophont Riposte. Since contact by the Communion nullship Acts of Dialogue, the Riposte and local Terragens have formed a syncretic civilisation.Environment
The surface conditions of Scaramouche are similar to those of most EuCytherean worlds: Extremely high temperatures and pressures, which are immediately lethal to any form of unprotected aqueous-carbon life and destructive to most unspecialised vecs.Scaramouche has no seasonal variation, but the long diurnal cycle of 142 Earth days creates an analogous variation. During the long day, extensive cloud cover blocks most sunlight, leaving only a dull, overcast orange glow. At night, the surface is almost completely dark, though due to its temperature it emits a weak glow in the near infrared.
Slow but powerful winds in the supercritical carbon dioxide atmosphere drag pebbles and any light objects across the surface.
 Image from Worldtree & Steve Bowers | |
| The surface of Scaramouche as seen in polarized light and as theoretically viewed through the eyes of a baseline human | |
Geography
Scaramouche is dominated by plains, which have a pressure and temperature suitable for the local biosphere.There are two highland "continents", one at the south pole, and one at the equator. The highlands are hostile to most life: At these lower temperatures and pressures, supercritical carbon dioxide becomes a weaker solvent and eutectic salts inside cells tends to crystallise. Only extremophile prokaryote-analogues survive such environments.
Several small lowlands are scattered across the surface. With higher temperatures and pressures, they are uninhabitable for Riposte, but hold specialised ecosystems.
Biochemistry
Scaramouche has three major environmental factors. First is the surface temperature of 750 K (467 degrees C), under which almost all organic polymers decompose. Second is the surface pressure of 10 MPa (roughly 100 times Earth's), which turns the lower atmosphere at the surface into a supercritical fluid of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Third is the scarcity of hydrogen, which limits its availability for biochemical processes.Consequently, life on Scaramouche uses silica-based polymers dissolved in supercritical carbon dioxide as the primary solvent and a eutectic molten salt as the secondary solvent. Its metabolic processes make extensive use of group I and II metals (predominantly calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium) as cations and carbonate as an anion.
Solvents
Supercritical carbon dioxide has some peculiarities as a solvent. Because the bonds are polarised but the molecule is symmetric, is has no dipole moment but a strong quadrupole moment. Therefore, while primarily a nonpolar solvent, it is also capable of dissolving some polar molecules. Compounds that dissolve easily in CO2 are referred to as capnophilic, while those that don't are called capnophobic. Most notably, carboxyl groups and fluorocarbons are capnophilic.A secondary solvent is molten salt, composed of a eutectic mixture of sodium, potassium and calcium carbonates, with smaller inclusions of orthosilicate and chloride cations. Dissolved protons make the solvent more acidic, and dissolved metal oxides make it more basic. The salt is a strongly polar solvent. Compounds that dissolve easily in the molten salt are called halophilic, and those that don't are called halophobic. Silicate polymers are strongly halophilic.
The molten salt is held within enlarged cellular membranes and sometimes within specialised organelles called ionosomes inside cells. Maintaining a eutectic balance is crucial. If the salt composition becomes changes, its melting point will increase and it will crystallise, killing the cell. Many biological toxins on Scaramouche work by inducing crystallisation. When organisms die through other means and cease to regulate the salt balance, the cells membranes tend to crystallise, and the remains become rigid and brittle.
The molten salt is a biogenic solvent: It doesn't occur naturally, but is only generated by organisms to maintain their metabolic processes. It is 39 times denser than the supercritical carbon dioxide (2550kg/m^3 compared to 65kg/m^3), and occupies 0.2% of the volume of an average cell but 8% of the mass.
Biopolymers
Carbon based polymers degrade in a Cytherean environment. Scaramouchean life uses a silica backbone, based on the strong silicon-oxygen bond, with side groups bonded to the silicon.There are some common variations of the backbone. Nitrogen can substitute for oxygen, creating another bond to attach side-groups, or aluminium can substitute for silicon. The silicon-nitrogen bond is somewhat weaker than the silicon-oxygen bond, making polymer cleavage easier.
Unlike Earth biomolecules, the silica backbone frequently bonds to itself. This can create amphibole polymers, with a double backbone. These are much less labile and more stable than a single silica backbone. Alternately, it can fold into silica cages and zeolite pores, which are more stable and can be useful for catalysis or ion transport.
Side groups attached to the backbone to give the final polymer its particular properties. There are two broad classes, silicone-type and silicate-type.
Silicone-type groups arise from bonding a carbon to the silicon. Methyl groups (CH^3) are relatively rare, because they demand three hydrogens. More common are aldehyde (COH) and carboxyl (COOH) groups, which are capnophilic despite being polar. Perfluoromethyl groups (CF^3) are also capnophilic, and useful because fluorine is more abundant than hydrogen on Scaramouche. Finally, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, bonded in multiple place along the backbone, increase stability and use less hydrogen per bond.
Silicate-type groups arise from bonding an oxygen to the silicon, creating a local silicate cation which can be paired to a metal anion. The most common are sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and aluminium. The oxygen may also be capped by a hydrogen, resulting in a silicic acid group.
Usually, silicone-type groups are capnophilic, while silicate-type groups, being charged, are halophilic. Silicone groups with a single backbone are labile but vulnerable to thermal degradation, while silicate groups and doubled backbones tend to be thermally stable but less stable. Variation of side-groups and backbone structure leads a wide variety of emergent properties and behaviours.
Surfactant polymers, used in membranes and vesicles, are composed of a flake of 2D silica (the silica analogue of graphene) capped by carbonyl groups at the capnophilic end and several silicate tails at the halophilic end. Protein analogues use ionic bonding between silicate-type and carboxylate groups rather than hydrogen bonding. Their catalytic effects result from both their folded conformation and silicate/aluminosilicate zeolite structures.
Polymerisation and crystallisation reactions proceed through deoxygenation of silicate monomers. Carbon dioxide or sulphur dioxide absorb oxygen and metal cations from the monomers, allowing them to bind together. Further deoxygenation results in silicone-type polymers or quartz crystals. Depolymerisation and de-crystallisation reactions proceed through oxygenation. Alkaline metal oxides react with the silica, breaking it into silicate elements. Carbonates, carbonyls and chlorides are used for ion exchange to modulate the effects of silicate groups.
Metabolism
The simplest and most ancient metabolic pathways use silica polymers under tension to store energy. Variants of this system appear in all organisms. The equivalent to ATP is a tensioned silica polymer, and nemosynthetic producer organisms use the wind to stretch silica polymers as a means of gaining energy.All complex life, however, relies on calcination reactions. Producer organisms use energy from the environment to decompose calcium carbonate into carbon dioxide and calcium oxide. The calcium oxide is stored as solid crystals with a protective silica coating to prevent unwanted reactions with carbon dioxide. Consumer organisms extract the crystals from food, remove the silica coating, and combine the calcium oxide with carbon dioxide for energy, then excrete the resultant calcium carbonate.
Genetics
Scaramouche life stores genetic information on flat quartz nanocrystals. Fluoromethyl groups cap the quartz surface to ensure stability. Triple-chained fluorosilicones link the crystals into long, flexible ribbons.The crystals encode information mechanically rather than chemically, using a system similar to punched cards. Each crystal is structured into alternating rows of two and three hexagonal elements. Some elements have holes and others do not. To read the information, molecular machines press hexagonal prisms of quartz against the gene crystal. Only elements with holes allow the prisms through.
To replicate the genome, multiple long prisms are inserted into the holes. Then silica polymers crystallise into quartz around the prisms, resulting in a new crystal with the same pattern of holes as the original.
To transcribe the genetic information, reader machines holding a set of five prisms attach to the crystal. The pattern of prisms that pass through the holes change the conformation of the reader machine. This conformation is complementary to a particular biomolecule monomer (equivalent to a single amino acid in Earth life). Strings of reader machines pass into the rest of the cell to generate specific biomolecules.
Ecology
Environment
The supercritical dioxide solvent inside cells has the same density as the surrounding atmosphere, and is therefore neutrally buoyant. This is offset, however, by the much higher density of silica biomolecules and molten salt, both of which tend to weigh down organisms more than the carbon biomolecules and minerals in aquatic Earth life.Because the supercritical carbon dioxide is much less dense than water (65 kg/m^3 rather than 1000 kg/m^3), it offers less drag, but also less thrust to organisms swimming through it.
The resultant environment presents conditions somewhere between aquatic and terrestrial conditions on Earthlike worlds. Organisms are buoyant, but still tend to sink towards the surface. Dynamic flight is far easier. However, for locomotion, it is more efficient to push against the surface than the atmosphere.
The ecosystem uses two major energy sources in roughly equal proportions. Nemosynthesis extracts energy from the powerful winds that cross its surface, and photosynthesis extracts energy from the diffuse light that gets past the cloud layer.
Surface winds on Scarmouche travel at around 3 m/s. With an atmospheric density 65 kg/m^3, this allows a total of 877 W/m^2 to be extracted perpendicular to the flow (though organisms extract only a fraction of this due to efficiency limitations).
Only 10% of light incident on the planet reaches the surface, appearing as a diffuse glow. On the equator at midday, this amounts to a maximum of 260 W/m^2 (perpendicular to the surface), with an average of 65 W/m^2 across the entire planet.
Nemosynthetic producers
The nemosynthetic process is based on stretching silica polymers into new conformations like molecular springs. Macroscopic organisms utilise wind energy most effectively, so most nemosynthetic organisms are multicellular wind plants. These come in several diverse phyla.The most spectacular are the kite trees. Adapted to use faster high-altitude winds, they can be several kilometres high. The basic structure has three to five anchoring cables connected to an inflated parafoil kite. Tension in the cables generates energy. At the bottom, the cables extend a large network of roots.
A second phyle of epiphyte symbiotes have evolved to grow on the anchoring cables. These take the form of ribbons trailing out behind the cable.
Fluttering trees are much shorter. They grow a semirigid trunk, with the branches that shorten into wire or ribbon shaped leaves. In times of low wind, the leaves curl up. High winds stretch them out again.
A variant of the rigid trees grows branches into hoops, extending windsock-like extractors. When the extracts are fully extended, multiple ports open on the surface, allowing them to defalte and be reeled back in.
Ramplants grow rigid structures like trumpets to funnel the wind into a narrow pipe where the energy-extractors are located.
Wind-grasses are similar to the Earth counterparts, with most of the biomass underground, and small fluttering blades extended above the surface.
Many nemosynthetic organisms are passively mobile, and these take several forms. Rovers are large, partially inflated spheres, extracting energy from the surface deformation as they roll along. Anchors have a kite at the top and a system of hooks at the bottom, which catch on ground features. Bolos fly at high altitudes, and consist of two or three small kite structures connected by thin, flexible wires.
Competition between nemosynthesisers leads to complex emergent effects. Energy availability is horizontal rather than vertical. While vertical growth in search of life is limited by gravity, there is no equivalent horizontal limitation. Consequently, dense ecosystems of nemosythesisers grow in bands. The highest energy extractors are at the front, like a rainforest canopy, and the lower energy extractors grow behind them, like an understory. If the wind is constant, the entire band moves forward as organisms compete for access to the wind, and leaves an empty "wind shadow" behind it.
Photosynthetic producers
Photosynthetic organisms are much simpler. Most are either planktonic, floating in the atmosphere, or form biofilms on the surface. Nevertheless, in aggregate, they make a significant contribution to the biosphere.One clade of photosynthesisers holds an important ecological role in decomposing calcium sulphate into calcium oxide and sulphur trioxide, a metabolic pathway that other organisms are incapable of.
They occupy a complementary niche to nemosynthesisers, being able to colonise the wind shadows of forests. Some form mutualistic relationships with kite trees, growing on the kites in relatively safety and providing energy to saplings that would otherwise be trapped in a wind shadow. Naturally, photosynthesis is most prominent in the equatorial band.
The most complex phylum of photosynthesisers resemble slime moulds. During the day, they form large biofilms across the surface. During the night, most turn into fruiting bodies that release spores. The dormant spores are spread by the wind to new locations, where they await morning. A few species, however, become detritivores, filter-feeders, or active predators.
Consumers
There is no distinct kingdom of fungi. Decomposer roles are taken up by a number of unicellular organisms, photosynthesising slime moulds, and primitive animals.Fractazoans, the most basal phylum of animals, consist of a fractally-branching network of stems and nodes. Each stem terminates in a node, and each node grows two further stems. Organisms reproduce by breaking apart. If a newly-grown node is fertilised, its offspring grow as new stems. Members of this phylum usually form subsurface mycelial networks, filter-feeders, or anemone-like predators. One clade has evolved into active, mobile predators, like brittle-stars or octopuses.
Icosazoans, another basal phylum, have icosahedral symmetry, with twenty triangular or pyramidal armoured scutes surrounding thin layer of flesh and a large body cavity. These icosazoans use the weight of their shell to remain on the surface, and extend sensory cilia from between the plates. When they encounter food, they separate the relevant scutes and pull the food into the body cavity. Many are passive, rolling with the wind. Others are active, flipping their scutes to roll across the surface.
The remaining phyla are more complex and derive from a bilaterian-like clade with a full digestive tract and bilateral symmetry. These offer a wide-variety of forms, some soft-bodied, some armoured, some with basket-exoskeletons. The tripodomorphs and tropeosts are the two most complex and active phyla.
Tripodomorphs have a triangular exoskeleton linking three jointed limbs, two either side of the mouth and one at the back. In one clade, the pogoplans, the front limbs have evolved into stubby immobile wings and the rear limb has evolved to kick back against the surface. They move in a series of ground effect hops, propelled by the rear leg. In another clade, the skyhooks, the rear leg has evolved into a long kite-like structure, and the front limbs have become talons to catch prey as they fly past.
Tropeosts can crystallise and melt some of the eutectic molten salts within their bodies to make their bones rigid or flexible. Evolving from a basal wormlike bodyplan, they exhibit a tremendous variety of forms and often display metamorphosis. Simple tropeosts in the polysome clade form colonial animals as part of their life cycle. From these have evolved more complex cephalised animals — cephalia — some of which live alone and some of which merge. Within the cephalia, one order, geminoids, consistently forms paired body plans. The Riposte belong to this order.
Civilisation
Scaramouche holds a syncretic civilisation of native Riposte and Terragen sophonts. The largest Riposte cultural group, termed Circumplanetary, is the most deeply engaged with Terragen civilisation, while smaller groups — Polar I, Polar II, Peninsular and Montane — are more conservative and inward-looking.Scaramouche
The technology level on Scaramouche itself is primarily primtech. The most notable features are the cities of the Circumplanetary Riposte, with their open framework stone buildings and central spaces for discussion and argument. These are inhabited only during the day; at night the Circumplanetary Riposte disperse into wandering bands.While Riposte form the largest part of the local population, a small number of Terragens have joined them. The most common are Skysharks, members of Clade Requiem who have adopted neogenic bodies using sharklike morphology with Scaramouchean biology. Skysharks swim through the lower atmosphere, occasionally pushing against the surface with their tails and pectoral fins. They have integrated with some parts of the Circumplanetary culture, living with the native Riposte as they shift between nomad and sedentary lifestyles.
Advanced technology is present in the form of medisystems, which have been adopted by many but not all local Riposte.
Otherwise, the most advanced region is the centred around a Lofstrom Loop on the equator, allowing easy access to orbit. Here, a small superinsulated pressure dome allows unmodified Terragen sophonts to visit the surface, and a bank of engenerators allow visitors to become embodied using Scaramouchean biology or modified vec forms, so they can experience the environment directly.
Boorish Imposition is the sole orbital around Scaramouch, serving primarily as a waystation for the surface Lofstrom Loop. It consists of a quartet of cylinders, two of which rotate for artificial gravity and two of which are in freefall. The internal environment holds sections for Scaramouchean environments, Gaian environments, and vacuum, plus feedstock caches, computronium, and a connection to the local lightway transceiver.
D'Azyr
D'Azyr is small McKendree cylinder, 500km in radius and 5000km long, at Scaramouche's L4 point. The internal environment matches that of Scaramouche in terms of temperature, pressure, surface gravity and day length. It was constructed as a habitat for Riposte who wished to engage more fully with Terragen culture and technology.The Riposte inhabitants of d'Azyr still live in similar ways to those of the Circumplanetary culture. During the night, they travel in nomadic bands across the surface, and during the day they congregate in cities. However, they use more high tech more extensively. The cities are far larger and more complex, and the architecture uses both vernacular materials and smart matter, allowing the inhabitants to remodel it easily. A transport network on the cylinder's underside connects all cities and many wilderness locations. Parts of the wilderness have a basic angelnet, ensuring safety for all travelling members. Even when moving in small bands, the Riposte can connect to the local net using DNI. Many use psychoware to more effectively and safely explore their phenomenal self-models, and connect their autohallucinations into quasi-virches. The urban spaces for discussion and debate remain, but have been supplemented by fora on the local net.
The Riposte of d'Azyr often have a greater variety of vocations, and have begun to take on some collective projects. Some are exploring gengineering and ecopoesis using Scaramouchean biology. Others have initiated a project to provolve a presapient species of pogoplans. A third group are megascale engineers, working on d'Azyr's systems. A fourth group are exploring different social and political structures, often combined with philosophy and poetry.
D'Azyr also holds a large Terragen population. Skysharks and high-temperature vecs live on the surface alongside the Riposte. In addition, it contains hundreds of non-Cytherean environments. Sub-habitats hang from the underside, bubblehabs float above the clouds, and a cylinder running down the axis holds a freefall environment with an oxygen atmosphere and biosphere. Baseline Requiem are one of the most common clades, but more recent arrivals from the Communion include Libri and Eja (for whom the opportunity to befriend xenosophonts is worth the difficulty in travelling) and Docii (drawn by a combination of novelty and the potential for aerostatic zenning). Communion bridging minds are common in a variety of forms, both sophtware and embodied as biont or vecs.
Politics
Acts of Dialogue is a Communion of Worlds ship, and thus Scaramouche and the Pantalone system in general are considered to be loosely affiliated with the Communion. The lack of Caretaker intervention may indicate that Communion archailects are acting as patrons for the system, but there is currently no conclusive evidence for this.Scaramouche and d'Azyr have good relations, and the different lifestyles of the Riposte have served to sooth rather than inflame tensions. Inhabitants of each regularly visit the other, back and forth migration is common, and the two have formed a biannual tradition of The Great Alien Sneering. In this, one world sends a delegation to the other to mock and insult the recipient's way of life, then break apart into individual sub-arguments.
Internal politics on Scaramouche are somewhat more troublesome. While Circumplanetary is stable, marginal cultures have fared less well. At the time of contact, Polar II allowed slavery and Montane allowed sovereigns to arbitrarily execute citizens. Terragen contact disrupted both practices, not because such acts were forbidden but because contact allowed the Polar II slaves and Montane subject various means of escape. Many left Scaramouche entirely. Montane subjects who remained have backups, so executions, while allowed, are pointless. Polar II slavery has morphed into voluntary servitude, with servants who will easily leave if dissatisfied. The ruling classes of Polar II and Montane tend to have a very low opinion of Terragens and of the Circumplanetary culture for joining them.
Travel
Scaramouche is very much a periphery world. None of the adjacent systems have been colonised. At present, the only modosophont transport access to the rest of the Terragen sphere is by lightway, a single link of which crosses 57 lightyears to the nearest microgauge wormhole. Discussions are underway to set up a beamrider route, but the distance to the rest of the network have so far prevented action.Telescopic evidence of gravitational lensing suggest that voidships may be travelling to Scaramouche, and there may even be a microgauge link to the godweb, but as yet the issue remains unresolved.
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Development Notes
Text by Liam Jones
Initially published on 04 August 2024.
Initially published on 04 August 2024.
