Natural Features

Tweezee is an Earth-like world orbiting a binary pair of white stars, Guvmun Uh and Guvmun Whii, just a touch yellower than Earth's Sol. Each subtends close to the same angle as Sol from Earth, and are separated by a maximum of five times that angular distance. This stellar pair in turn is in a distant orbit with another binary pair, called Nuuglo and Zhuu, far enough away that their direct light is only equivalent to twilight from the Guvmun pair and even Human eyes cannot resolve their individual disks as more than bright points. From Tweezee's surface, Nuuglo and Zhuu are separated by less than ¹⁄₅^th the width of Sol or Luna's disk from Earth.

Tweezee is orbited by a large moon, named Gun, comparable in size to Earth's own Luna. Being made of different material, however, it is brighter with a reddish hue.

Numerous volcanoes dot Tweezee's surface. In addition to the usual stratovolcanoes strung out like beads on a string along tectonic plate boundaries, the planet has many mid-plate shield volcanoes and calderas. Lakes or rivers of molten lava are found in numerous places on Tweezee's surface. The climate varies irregularly over a period of several years depending on how many volcanoes are spewing sulfate and ash into the stratosphere.

The life of Tweezee is rich and vigorous. The photoautotrophes are lichens, which often enter into a symbiotic relationship with certain sessile local animals. The animals provide trunks and branches that lift the photosynthesizing lichens up into the sky and serve as conduits to transfer nutrients and sugars between the lichens and symbiotic root fungi.

History

After the initial difficulties of The Bump in the Night were overcome, the people of Gummi Space began casting their eyes out for more resources to feed their growing affluence. Tweezee was initially located by an orbital observatory around Grummer, which found a promising spectroscopic signature around one of the planets of the double star. A probe wormhole was launched. The initial orbital survey of Tweezee showed not only a vibrant ecosystem, but areas with rich deposits of tellurium, indium, zinc, bismuth, and copper. Soon, explorers on the ground confirmed that the world had significant potential. The sunlight was adequate for Gummi-style agriculture, and tellurium was in short supply. Several Nogis stepped up to begin extracting tellurium, and farmers looking for a place to call their own began filtering through.

Government

Tweezee has no overall government. Several regional coordination committees exist, and most towns have their own methods of organizing themselves and doing things. The one Human town has a mayor, a city council, a courthouse with one judge, and a small fire and police force. They also managed to get a sheriff and a couple deputies to look after the surrounding unincorporated land that they're calling a county. The mayor is not well respected or trusted by most Gummis; fortunately, the sheriff is and her presence can go a long way to smoothing over difficulties.

People

The Tweezee colony is still young, its people and attitudes rough-and-tumble, and its population is low. It has attracted mostly miners and farmers, who do not always get along – the farmers want healthy soil to grow crops and pasture livestock; the miners want to rip up the land and process it, and their waste and effluent are not healthy for growing things or the things that eat them. Even among the normally peaceful and cooperative Gummis, tempers are fraying.

Most Tweezeans are Gummis, with the odd Pirang pack living among them. Several Tweechi flocks have established themselves, and a small farming town of approximately 10,000 Humans has grown up, since the white sunlight is as beneficial for Earth plants as it is for those of Gummiland. Another 25,000 or so Humans live scattered among the populace, mostly employed by mining Nogis for their expertise in automated systems.

Places

Glourum

Glourum barely counts as a city. It has a single basic wormhole station, little more than an arch with an airlock big enough to fit cargo containers and passenger cars through, with a small ticket station and a number of large pipes connecting to the arch to allow mass ballast transfer. There is a dockyard for stowing and moving cargo off to the side, and a wide path reserved for hover barge transport to and from other worlds. Near the station are hotels, vehicle rentals, restaurants, and charging ports so visitors can stop a bit, rest, and get themselves oriented. The residential areas are sleepy, shaded streets passing rounded Gummi-style houses, with the occasional Human prefab dwelling stuck in for good measure.

The land around Glourum is made up of flood basalts, uplifted here and there by tectonic forces into tall ridges. It is covered by broken woodland, with open forests growing on the north sides of the ridges and scrub and plains on the south facing slopes. Migrations of several species of megafauna come traipsing through twice each year, heading north for the summer or south for the winter. Hot springs, geysers, and odd mineral deposits are common. About 100 km away is a lava lake in an active caldera that is a popular tourist spot.

Turner Flats

The town of Turner Flats is the Human majority town in a world that is mostly Gummis. Those passing through will find a couple restaurants on Main Street, along with a hardware store, feed store, sporting goods store, a few stores selling knick-knacks and handicrafts, and a tractor dealer's lot. Once off Main, one will find a number of residences before heading out into farmland, fields of wheat and barley and potatoes and onions with the occasional farmhouse or grain silo.

Several kilometers out is a collection of nests of a Tweechi flock, set on poles to overlook the relatively flat plains. Humans generally don't want to live close to them, because of their loud community and family singing.

Turner flats was built at the confluence of two streams, which are a popular fishing spot among the locals. Near the banks of the streams are the only places in the vicinity where tall trees grow wild, so the channels are fairly easy to locate from a distance.

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