Out near the eastern fringe of the Bubble, 140 light-years from Sol in the Antliae Sector, lies the HIP 49599 system. It's a generally unremarkable system, except for a serendipitous discovery early in its colonization that saw its planned future radically altered.
Having been explored in the 2800s by Federation deep-space probes, it was earmarked for development as an Agricultural colony, with three worlds readily terraformable. One of those worlds, planet 1, already had a complex and thriving ecosystem, despite the extreme temperatures present, with many plant-analogues, even tree-analogues, as well as amphibian-level native animals (which the first explorers named "salamanders") living in the superheated surface water.
The system was colonised by Federation corporate interests in 2987 and terraforming of Planet 1 began in earnest, the corporate bean-counters having determined that it was the cheapest of the three worlds to terraform; profits from the sale of produce once Planet 1 was finished would then help fund the terraforming of planets 2 and 3. But the terraforming process was halted in 3002 when the science team, investigating the local ecosystem and how it was adapting to the terrraforming process, discovered something rather odd.
At 612 K (340 deg C, 640 deg F), Planet 1 is not your typical agricultural colony; it is one of the few registered Agricultural planets that does not rate as "Earth-like". But in its natural state, the planet originally had a much more "Venus-like" surface, even hotter and with approximately 30 atmospheres of nearly-pure carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, the extremophile native lifeforms were well adapted to those 400-degrees-C surface conditions. But as the terraforming rigs removed carbon dioxide and began to cool the planet, one of the native trees began to bear an odd kind of fruit not recorded when the planet was hotter. Terraforming was immediately paused and the planet's administration handed over from Corporate to direct Federation control; aside from the usual paranoia which Federation bureaucrats tend to show in regard to causing extinction of alien ecosystems, native lifeforms having a malevolent reaction to the terraforming process had caused numerous terraforming efforts in the past centuries to fail and this phenomenon needed to be investigated properly, to ensure the future farms would be safe and viable.
Further analysis of the phenomenon revealed that not only was it harmless, but the fruit itself was actually quite nutritious and tasty - in contrast to the rest of the planet's biology, which was found to be too high in toxic organosilicate compounds to be edible. The new colonial governor at the time was an astute marketeer and realised that this fruit, if marketed properly, could be just as profitable as anything a normal terraformed planet could produce - plus the export market (and profits) could begin immediately, rather than having to wait the fifty years it would have taken to complete terraforming and establish traditional Earth-based crops. Thus was born the "Agsggfruit" (usually pronounced "agg-sig-fruit") - the name being derived from misinterpreting a carelessly hand-written label of the name of the star system, "49599 fruit". It is now the star system's primary export. Further experiments proved that the agsggfruit trees would begin to die if conditions on the planet were made any more Earth-like and they would not survive at all in a normal Earth-like environment, so all further terraforming efforts on the planet were permanently suspended. Howver, because the planet is no longer in its "natural" state, Federation databases (and Universal Cartographics) still list the world as "being terraformed".
Millions of tonnes of agsggfruit now pass through Moore Orbital, the system's primary starport, for export to the burgeoning colonies of the Fringe, as can be seen in the above picture where "fruit and vegetables" greatly outnumber all other foodstuffs; the "grain" listed there is actually powdered freeze-dried agsggfruit pulp; the remaining products for sale at Moore Orbital are all produced on board the station. The business has been so successful that further Agricultural planets in the system are no longer required, with commencement of terraforming on planets 2 and 3 having been postponed indefinitely; these worlds instead have been turned into industrial bases to aid with producing the heavy machinery needed to harvest agsggfruit on the planet, where surface conditions remain very hostile to human life, as well as industrial bases for processing and converting the agsggfruit into base nutrients for food cartridges.
Having been explored in the 2800s by Federation deep-space probes, it was earmarked for development as an Agricultural colony, with three worlds readily terraformable. One of those worlds, planet 1, already had a complex and thriving ecosystem, despite the extreme temperatures present, with many plant-analogues, even tree-analogues, as well as amphibian-level native animals (which the first explorers named "salamanders") living in the superheated surface water.
The system was colonised by Federation corporate interests in 2987 and terraforming of Planet 1 began in earnest, the corporate bean-counters having determined that it was the cheapest of the three worlds to terraform; profits from the sale of produce once Planet 1 was finished would then help fund the terraforming of planets 2 and 3. But the terraforming process was halted in 3002 when the science team, investigating the local ecosystem and how it was adapting to the terrraforming process, discovered something rather odd.
At 612 K (340 deg C, 640 deg F), Planet 1 is not your typical agricultural colony; it is one of the few registered Agricultural planets that does not rate as "Earth-like". But in its natural state, the planet originally had a much more "Venus-like" surface, even hotter and with approximately 30 atmospheres of nearly-pure carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, the extremophile native lifeforms were well adapted to those 400-degrees-C surface conditions. But as the terraforming rigs removed carbon dioxide and began to cool the planet, one of the native trees began to bear an odd kind of fruit not recorded when the planet was hotter. Terraforming was immediately paused and the planet's administration handed over from Corporate to direct Federation control; aside from the usual paranoia which Federation bureaucrats tend to show in regard to causing extinction of alien ecosystems, native lifeforms having a malevolent reaction to the terraforming process had caused numerous terraforming efforts in the past centuries to fail and this phenomenon needed to be investigated properly, to ensure the future farms would be safe and viable.
Further analysis of the phenomenon revealed that not only was it harmless, but the fruit itself was actually quite nutritious and tasty - in contrast to the rest of the planet's biology, which was found to be too high in toxic organosilicate compounds to be edible. The new colonial governor at the time was an astute marketeer and realised that this fruit, if marketed properly, could be just as profitable as anything a normal terraformed planet could produce - plus the export market (and profits) could begin immediately, rather than having to wait the fifty years it would have taken to complete terraforming and establish traditional Earth-based crops. Thus was born the "Agsggfruit" (usually pronounced "agg-sig-fruit") - the name being derived from misinterpreting a carelessly hand-written label of the name of the star system, "49599 fruit". It is now the star system's primary export. Further experiments proved that the agsggfruit trees would begin to die if conditions on the planet were made any more Earth-like and they would not survive at all in a normal Earth-like environment, so all further terraforming efforts on the planet were permanently suspended. Howver, because the planet is no longer in its "natural" state, Federation databases (and Universal Cartographics) still list the world as "being terraformed".
Millions of tonnes of agsggfruit now pass through Moore Orbital, the system's primary starport, for export to the burgeoning colonies of the Fringe, as can be seen in the above picture where "fruit and vegetables" greatly outnumber all other foodstuffs; the "grain" listed there is actually powdered freeze-dried agsggfruit pulp; the remaining products for sale at Moore Orbital are all produced on board the station. The business has been so successful that further Agricultural planets in the system are no longer required, with commencement of terraforming on planets 2 and 3 having been postponed indefinitely; these worlds instead have been turned into industrial bases to aid with producing the heavy machinery needed to harvest agsggfruit on the planet, where surface conditions remain very hostile to human life, as well as industrial bases for processing and converting the agsggfruit into base nutrients for food cartridges.
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