The Wonder of Semilune
The Wonder of Semilune (formerly referred to as UGA-122-IS and the Destroyer of Semilune) is a stable strangelet[1] believed to originate from outside the system. As predicted for an object composed of strange matter it has extraordinarily high density (1.3x10^13 times that of pure gold), but is very small, being only 0.438 standard units in its longest direction[2]. Most importantly, it is positively charged[3]. Despite their usual effusiveness, the Caretakers have not responded to any requests for information or opinions on the Wonder or objects like it.
History
The Wonder was first discovered in ZY 2234 by observing the perturbations of inner-system asteroids, which showed it on a vector emerging from what is now the Negated Zones, however study of it was not considered a priority until it impacted the asteroid 3A 'Semilune' in ZY 2241, destroying it. It was subsequently acquired by an Iridium Throne expedition[4], and placed in an unknown secure location.
The Destroyer of Semilune, which at that point was believed to be a negatively charged planet killer due to an Iridium Throne misinformation campaign, was used as a threat against the Nolnek Imperium on three separate occasions over the next five centuries. The Nolneks discovered the ruse in ZY 2766, kicking off the Cold Moon Crisis.
Sometime after the Crisis, the Iridium Throne came under pressure from the other Pentarchate members for its handling of the Wonder and lack of meaningful research conducted on it. The Wonder was eventually relocated to a specially designed chamber aboard Lambent Station, which was chosen for its seclusion and (comparative) political neutrality, where it has remained.
- ↑ A strangelet is a small agglomeration of strange matter made up of an undifferentiated mass of up, down and strange quarks. Under most models, strange matter should only be stable at incredibly high pressures. Like the core of a neutron star.
- ↑ Strangelets are ordinarily spherical due to the force of gravity, but the Wonder is instead spindle-shaped. This is hypothesized to be due to some form of hitherto unknown internal structure, but has proven nearly impossible to investigate.
- ↑ A positively charged strangelet is repelled by normal matter, and thus cannot cause a strange matter cascade like a negatively charged one would.
- ↑ The official rationale was scientific curiosity, but really they couldn't risk letting the Nolnek Imperium get a hold of it. They barely even looked at the thing.
PreservingMachine (talk) 18:49, 9 January 2019 (PST)
