Dead Star Dockyards

Donovan caressed his forehead as he sighed, hand sliding down to pinch the bridge of his nose as he reached the extent of his exhalation. He could pore over the reports a thousand times and ask Arc to run his simulations a thousand more, but nothing would change reality. Nectar was growing too fast, and the pace would only increase.

Over the course of the past two months Donovan and the flight crews he trained managed to ferry a humble 150 thousand or so Nekh to safety. Given a roughly two week round trip with a day added on either end for maintenance and restocking, a total of four Trawler trips and three Pegasus trips had been enough to balloon the population well beyond the ability of their already temperamental infrastructure to support - housing and food services being the most impacted. It would be impractical to expect anything to adapt to an increase by an order of magnitude over the course of two months, but failure to do so would almost certainly have dire consequences.

Now the situation wasn't yet out of control, in the worst case scenario the people could and would be able to fend for themselves to some degree, but this was not desirable. Poor construction might be an acceptable alternative to freezing, however it represented a waste of precious labor. Eventually these houses would need to be replaced, and until then the people would be contending with sub-par living conditions which could affect their work efficiency and mood. Donovan would much rather they take a bit longer to construct something of acceptable quality, not perfect, not great, just good enough to keep in service until a substantive urbanization and modernization effort could be organized.

Unfortunately, that wasn't an option at the moment. Even if he could get them to wait for proper housing, there were an equal number of other projects that were simply more important. The gravel quarry, for example, was going to be pivotal for both the creation of roads and the eventual concrete plant - another project in dire need of manpower. The steel mill, stormwater conveyance system, and electric grid were all of greater importance than these housing projects as well, however those could be put off for the time being. Arc could supplement their steel needs for the time being, the rain season was still half a year away, and until they had enough independently operating and spaced apart projects to justify such an investment they could rely on generators to light up their nighttime operations.

The whole colony was working at 110% trying to get as much done as soon as possible, erecting housing and tilling fields, and yet it still wasn't enough. Hell, two months wasn't even enough time to establish the first round of people who could understand English, so a great deal of information still needed to be passed from Arc to the workers through a Holifanian intermediary.

Speaking of 'months', Donovan and Arc had actually uncovered something of a disturbing bit of information whilst giving the data from their satellites a look through, namely that an Earth 'month' was different than a Nectar 'month'. To go a step further, they didn't have the same year. It was something he had been dwelling on a lot recently, if only because a failure to adapt to this calendar would cause issues down the line.

"Three hundred and fifteen days . . . at least the day cycle is the same twenty four hours."

"It remains an estimate, but yes. A 'year' here is most definitely shorter than on Earth." Arc displayed a pair of 'calendars' for Donovan's consideration. Neither was the Gregorian calendar he was familiar with, simply different propositions for how they might measure the year here. One was nine months of 35 days each, the other seven months of 45 days each. Arc had previously presented one with fifteen months of 21 days . . . but that felt like too many months for such a small number of days and was rejected in short order. "What's more, it would appear the habitable planets in other systems share a nearly identical cycle, though there is still a modicum of variance."

"That isn't surprising, honestly. Operating under the assumption that they were all manufactured by the Great Csillacra, I would expect them to be the same. Having an identical year feels like the sort of thing they'd try for in order to provide a degree of stability." Donovan wanted to take a walk to clear his head, but there was work to do. "Just out of curiosity, what's the average?"

"Barring extreme outliers like Terra and those having days not synchronized with a 24-hour day, the average solar cycle for a habitable planet appears to fall within 314.1 to 314.2 days, though more data would need to be collected to provide a concrete number."

"Narrowing it down to a tenth of a day is good enough . . ." Donovan closed his eyes, suspicious of the range presented. "What about the lunar cycle? How long is it between full moons from one spot on the ground, I mean."

"That isn't data I've collected yet, but a preliminary calculation suggests a value between 30 and 33 days on planets with a single moon. Terra's lunar cycle was approximately 29.5."

". . . what are the chances the average lunar cycle is 31.4 days?" Donovan was certain a specific 'number' had been chosen for the days in a year, but he wasn't sure that the Great Csillacra or Arboreal Maiden would be completely arbitrary in their selection of such a number. In fact, there were a few numbers and number series they appeared to be quite fond of. One of those series seemed to be the Fibonacci sequence and Squared numbers, though he wasn't certain if this was an acquired taste or coherence to some natural law. It also liked binary numbers to some extent, but the most 'arbitrary' numbers in his eyes were without question the numbers seven and ten. He didn't quite understand why, and perhaps he was finding patterns in places they didn't exist, but they appeared more than he felt natural.

Important to Donovan was the lack of representation of other natural ratios in those numbers. The Fibonacci sequence might converge to the Golden ratio and the binary sequence might be representative of unfettered growth, but what about Pi and Euler's number? He couldn't imagine them to have ignored those numbers, and now he was seeing evidence of an application.

"You believe they may have multiplied a day by ten Pi to standardize the length of a month?"

"And a hundred Pi to standardize the length of a year, yes." The more Donovan thought about it, the more he became convinced of his theory. He wouldn't say anything for certain until he interrogated the people in question, but he had a pretty good feeling about this one.

"What reason would they have for that decision?"

"Why would they need a reason?"

". . . why wouldn't they?"

Donovan made to respond with a snide retort, only pausing once he realized Arc was being genuine with his question. Unlike Donovan, Arc had not interacted with the Great Csillacra, and so likely had a mistaken impression of the tree's character. He couldn't be certain, but it was reasonable to assume Arc thought it to be more rational and calculating than flippant and impulsive. It certainly was, just not to the degree one might anticipate.

"If you have a range of options, all of which are apparently equivalent in value, which would you choose?" Donovan thought it best to pose a question first.

"If there is no distinction, I would select one at random."

"So you would choose without reason?"

". . . surely there would be more to the cost benefit analysis than being an integer, no?"

"If you can alter every other variable to achieve your desired results at will, why should it matter? I mean, even if it does, they aren't all at exactly that value, they crowd around it. If I had to guess, the Great Csillacra starts off from a basic template of a star system and works from there."

"That still doesn't explain the decision to default to ten and one hundred."

"Maybe they thought it looked nice."

"An aesthetic reason for something so important? I would imagine something like this to have more thought behind it."

"Why should it?"

"Because the prosperity of a species depends upon it?"

"And if that isn't the goal?" Donovan reclined, closing his eyes. This had the potential to be a long conversation.

"Is their intent behind creating these worlds not to achieve something related to the 'humans' within?"

"It is most certainly related, but the prosperity - the success or failure - of a species clearly has little to do with it. I mean, we are apparently what they've been looking for, and look at what they did to us."

"But they would still need to adjust the climate to achieve what they want, which may be dependent on the solar and lunar cycles."

"Perhaps, but if those adjustments can be done through other means-"

"-the matter would be irrelevant, as you said before. I still find it hard to believe the cycle of the planet to be decided by something so trivial."

"Then let's think of it another way. What if the reason for this isn't based upon what they are trying to create, but instead upon what already exists."

"So they wish to keep a calendar consistent for integration?"

"I can see that as a possibility."

"Then how did they get that number to begin with? Is it perhaps based on some form of internal clock for the Great Csillacra?"

"It could be."

"Your ambiguity is not helping my analysis."

"Then stop analyzing."

"To do so would be antithetical to my purpose."

"Your purpose is to assist Diana and I. How would uncovering this secret aid us?"

"To do so would be antithetical to my desire to understand."

"The entities who made the decision to do it this way are alive and well. If we want to understand the decision, we can ask them. If they don't give an answer, then we can start digging for deeper meaning. For now, its an exercise in futility."

"And if I wish to engage in such futility?"

"Then you can leave me out of it. I've got too much going on to be distracted by this." Donovan opened his eyes, gazing past the calendars before him to the screen beyond.

"Have you decided on a calendar?"

"Nine months of thirty five days. Year one starts on the winter equinox for the northern pole of Nectar. Call it the 'New Terran Standard Calendar' or something."

- - - - -

"Dammit. He chose the harder one." Diana buried her head in the pillow upon reading Arc's message. "I should have pulled the trigger instead of leaving it up to him."

"What's wrong?" Titanyana perked up from the chair in the corner, her lesson briefly interrupted by the outburst.

"Donovan has made the decision on what our new year is going to be, so now I have to figure out how to make it work." In all honesty it wasn't as big a deal as she made it out to be. Adapting to a 315 day year was already going to be a nightmare psychologically, establishing a naming and dating convention would not be nearly as difficult in comparison. Adapting the holidays she wanted to keep to the new format would be a bit of a headache though. "He decided on nine months."

"Aren't there ten on most planets?"

"The whole month being a complete lunar orbit thing has been a bit outdated for a few hundred years for us. It's honestly more like a convenient method of separating the year into equal parts. It's a lot easier to say 'June fourteenth' than day . . . one hundred something and have someone immediately associate a time frame."

"Wouldn't seasons suffice?"

"If you live in a place without significant seasonal variance, it can be difficult. Just accept it as a Terran thing, if that's what you need."

"Okay." Titanyana buried her nose back into the tablet, scribbling a note with a stylus. What she wrote was irrelevant to Diana, she only cared that she was writing.

"July and August are out." Diana immediately got to work on her end, removing the two months she felt didn't fit. She had nine to work with, and the public displays of vanity from emperors long since past simply didn't jive with what she wanted from the calendar. For that matter, so were the numbered months of September, October, November, and December. She couldn't sacrifice the opportunity for precious cultural influence on the altar of sequential numbers. She was better than that.

In fact, she felt throwing the whole calendar out and starting fresh would probably be better. January, March, May, and June were all named after gods she didn't worship, February after a ritual she didn't participate in, and April after the opening of flowers, which might have been acceptable if it wasn't so damn generic. Diana thought that with the creation of a new calendar, new months should be selected. Considering this calendar would follow the solar cycle of Nectar to some extent, it would be okay to add some element of seasonality, but this should probably take a more generic form.

For example, Diana wanted the name of the second month to have some reference to the moon. She didn't want this for anything seasonal, but because the Lunar New Year was always celebrated on the second new moon following the winter solstice for their current capitol - which Donovan had marked as the beginning of this new calendar year. It wouldn't line up perfectly as a lunar cycle was closer to 31 days than 35, but the association alone would be good enough for Diana to work with.

This in mind, Diana also considered the other two elements of the celestial triad - the sun and earth. Given this was a nine month year, she could nicely fit one of each in the center of each third - so months five and eight. Month five would have to belong to the sun as it would always contain the summer solstice, which left month eight for 'Earth' - fitting for the end of the harvest season. Barely a minute into thinking about this and she already had the base concept for a third of the months!

She also had an idea for the first and final months, which were obvious candidates for names representing a beginning and end, however those could wait for later. The remaining four months would require a bit more thought, the third month more than others. By Arc's calculations they would have made their first steps on Nectar around the third or fourth day of that month, and made their first voyage to Nekh towards the end of it. At the same time, it was likely to be the month farmers started planting in most places on the northern hemisphere of this planet. Whatever name it was given would require some element that expressed a bright future and good harvests without bending too far to either side.

If she could figure something out for that, the rest would be a piece of cake!