Minos
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The planet Minos is the scene of one of the galaxy's great unsolved mysteries. It was once a thriving, advanced planet known as the "arsenal of freedom" for its busy weapons industry. Then something killed the entire population, and Minos remains a deadly place to this day. The Federation has quarantined the planet.
Minos lies within the Lorenze Cluster, a dense formation of nearly a hundred stars within a space only twenty light years across. The Minos system itself consists of ten planets circling a Type F2 V (bright yellow-white dwarf) star. The three inner planets are all small and barren, and the six outer worlds are a mix of gas giant planets and small glacier worlds. The fourth planet is Minos. All the worlds in the system are rich in metals and rare elements.
Environment
Minos is a Class M planet, with a warm climate and large oceans. The surface is a very pleasant environment with extensive forests, the result of ecological engineering by the Minosians. From space, the entire world looks green, as the oceans are colored by copper salts and algae. There is one large landmass covering most of the southern hemisphere. The gravity is ten percent less than standard, and the planet's day is forty hours long.
History
The recorded history of Minos extends back some four thousand years. Unification of the single super-continent was accomplished soon after the invention of gunpowder. Minosians first ventured into space five hundred years ago. Because the stars of the Lorenze Cluster are so close to each other, they could mount interstellar expeditions without warp drives. First contact with a neighboring civilization came a century later.
Over the next four centuries Minos became renowned for its arms industry. Weapon manufacturing was originally a tool of diplomacy for the Minosians. By supplying arms to neighboring worlds in the Lorenze Cluster, the Minosian government was able to prevent any one civilization from gaining a dominant position. They proudly called their planet the "arsenal of freedom" and sold arms to all comers. Besides serving political aims, arms sales soon became a major source of income for the Minosians. Nearly half of their planet's interstellar trade involved arms exports or parts and spares.
The Erselrope Wars in the early 24th century were the high point for the Minosian arms industry. Minos' factories worked at full capacity to produce weapons for both sides in the conflict, and the war continued until the planet Erselrope itself was destroyed by a Minosian product. Contact between Minos and the Federation was limited. The Minosians resented Federation "interference" in their arms trade, and actively worked to limit Federation influence in the Lorene Cluster. Starfleet had no need of Minosian weapon systems, and the Minosians had no desire for competition.
Some time around 2350, the Minosian civilization suddenly disappeared. Ships entering the system received no answer to their hails, and vessels entering orbit around the planet were never heard from again. The handful of Minosian technicians and travelers surviving in other systems could offer no clues to the fate of their civilization. In 2364 the U.S.S. Enterprise-D became the first ship to return from a visit to Minos. It barely survived a harrowing encounter with a Minosian automated fighting machine. Exactly what happened to the Minosians is still not known with any certainty. The most likely explanation is that one or more weapon systems got out of control somehow. The problem with this is the lack of bodies and the absence of much "collateral damage."
One suggestion is that the Minosians developed something like the legendary Tantalus Field - a weapon able to kill at a distance, leaving no trace behind. But in the time it would take to wipe out a population of three billion, surely some word would have reached other worlds of what was going on. Others have postulated a deadly virus which literally consumed the entire population as it killed them, but subsequent visits to Minos have turned up no signs of pathogens. Possibly the weirdest suggestion is that the Minosians began experimenting with psychological warfare, and developed a method of persuading the enemy to commit suicide which worked too well.
Some peace activists have suggested that the Minosians were exterminated by one of the powerful elder races, possibly the Q or the Husnock, as punishment for producing such deadly weapons. While it is possible, such an act seems inconsistent with the conduct of those powerful beings.
Culture
Nobody lives on Minos anymore. Orbital scans have detected no sentient lifeforms at all. While it is barely possible that some survivors may remain in some heavily shielded location, all indications are that the planet is uninhabited.
The Minosians were a fairly ordinary humanoid race, with copper-based blood and a pouch for their young. Both sexes tended to go bald in front soon after reaching adulthood.
Given their reputation as "merchants of death," it is rather surprising that the Minosians were not an especially warlike species. Their planet was unified about the time gunpowder was invented, and the Minosians never had ambitions to expand beyond their star system. Planetary defense for Minos itself was left to sophisticated computers and automated weapons platforms. The Planetary Defense Force was mainly occupied with customs enforcement and rescue operations. As far as the Minosians were concerned, was was something which only happened to other species.
Government
The Minosian government was an elected parliament, but for centuries the real power was in the hands of an elite group of senior bureaucrats and corporate executives, all drawn from the prestigious Minosian Academy of Advanced Thought.
There is no sign of any civil upheaval in the destruction of the Minosians. The few survivors on other worlds did not know of any internal problems that might have boiled up into civil war. A small pacifist movement had existed for decades with grudging official toleration. The pacifists confined most of their activities to peaceful protests and symbolic acts of minor sabotage.
Economy
The nature of the Minosian weapons reflects their role as export goods. The "serious" military powers in the galaxy - the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Federation - rely on steady improvement of reliable and familiar weapon systems. The Federation has used phasers since the 2250's, and disruptors have been the mainstay of Klingon military power for centuries. By contrast, Minosian weapon designers put a lot of effort into coming up with new and showy weapons, in order to appeal to the small-time planetary rulers and would-be imperialists who made up their customer base. In the area of battlefield and personal weapons, the Minosian designers concentrated on making "smart" weapons, which did not require trained soldiers to operate. In many cases the devices were completely autonomous - a strong selling point to armies facing superior numbers. The Minosians also had a very profitable line in assassination and espionage devices for sale to intelligence and police agencies.
Places of Interest
At its height Minos had a population of more than three billion, so there are naturally thousands of ancient cities now lying abandoned. The Minosians constructed most of their offices, factories, and laboratories underground, leaving the surface free for houses and public buildings surrounded by large tracts of parkland. Since the disaster which killed all the Minosians, their cities have fallen into ruin. Many of the underground sections have flooded or collapsed.
The former capital city of Minos was Koson, located on the coast of the main continent. Once home to ten million people, it is being reclaimed slowly by jungle. The tall towers formerly housing Minos' government and its great corporations are now surrounded by a sea of green and shrouded in dense vines.
The primary weapons-development laboratories were in the town of Lamaso, on a high desert plateau in the far south. Weapon systems were tested in the desert nearby, or else on the uninhabited third planet of the system. The Lamaso complex is still guarded by elaborate force shields, making it impossible to transport in or to scan the area with sensors.
The largest weapons-production facility on Minos was the Yondeyo industrial center, located on an artificial island about four hundred kilometers northwest of the capital city. The Yondeyo complex has been heavily pounded by ocean storms and is not likely to last many years longer.
Fauna
Like most long-inhabited worlds with billions of people, Minos didn't have many wild animals outside of protected regions. With the destruction of Minosian civilization, the animals have begun reclaiming the planet. Most species found in the ruins are small scavengers and gatherers, but a few bigger carnivores have followed. Still, most native Minosian animals are wary of humanoids and don't pose much of a threat to visitors.
Natural lifeforms aren't necessarily the only ones inhabiting Minos. While the bulk of Minosian weapons involved robotics and energy attacks, the planet did have a small but highly inventive biological warfare division. The biowar scientists specialized in the creation of extremely dangerous animal species to serve as living weapons. Most were designed to have very rapid life cycles, so they could be seeded on enemy planets to cause chaos and disrupt the ecology quickly. Some specimens may have escaped after their masters left and would now inhabit the planet (assuming they could start a breeding cycle capable of overcoming their artificially shortened lives).
Reference(s)
- Cambias, James, et al. Planets of the UFP: A Guide to Federation Worlds, Last Unicorn Games, 1999. ISBN: 0671040065.