Talchek (world)

Talchek/District 268 (Spinward Marches 1631)
Classic Era (1116)	C7B1442-8 Starport C Routine: No Construction, Major Repair, Unrefined fuel Size 7 Medium (11,200 km, 0.70g - 0.94g) Atmosphere B Exotic (corrosive) Hydrographics 1 Dry World 10% Population 4 Moderate (60 thousand) Government 4 Representative Democracy Law 2 Low Law (no energy weapons) Tech Level 8 Pre-Stellar (superconductors)
See also	UWP
System Details
Primary	K8 V M5 V
Planetoid Belts	0
Gas Giants	1

style="width: 220px; height: 250px;"

Jump map from Travellermap.com

Talchek is a nonindustrial, fluidic hellworld with a population struggling to survive in an inhospitable environment.

• A fluid world has an oceanic geography consisting of heavily contaminated water or a substance such as ammonia, methane, hydrocarbons, or other exotic liquid.
• Hellworlds often offer daily, and sometimes hourly, life-threatening situations to their inhabitants.
• It requires extensive imports of outside technology to maintain a modern, star-faring society. Having to import most manufactured and high tech goods drives the price up for these items at this world.
• It is a client state of the Third Imperium in the District 268 Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector.
• This dangerous world is designated an Amber Zone with an environment, laws, customs, life forms, or other conditions that make it dangerous to visitors.
• Talchek is a member of the Spinward Main.

Astrography & Planetology

Stellar Data

Talchek is a binary star system.

• The primary is an orange main sequence.
• The secondary is a red main sequence.

Talchek has two stars in the star system.

Primary
	Type	Category		Mass (Sol)	Temperature (K)	Luminosity
	K8 V	Main Sequence (Dwarf)		0.62	3930 - 3990	0.18766
	Unit	Diameter	Safe Distance	Habitable Zone	Jump Shadow	M-Drive Limit
	AU	0.0057	0.0359	0.45 - 0.84	0.57	5.7
	Orbit #	*	*	2	2	6
	Remarks		None
Companion
	Type	Category		Mass (Sol)	Temperature (K)	Luminosity
	M5 V	Main Sequence (Dwarf)		0.162	2930 - 3060	0.00171
	Unit	Diameter	Safe Distance	Habitable Zone	Jump Shadow	M-Drive Limit
	AU	0.0018	0.0034	0.04 - 0.09	0.18	1.8
	Orbit #	*	*	*	0	4
	Remarks		None

System Data

The worlds of the system have been surveyed. They consist of:

• The mainworld.
• x8 secondary rocky worlds.
• x1 gas giant.

Mainworld Data

Talcheck is an extremely inhospitable world with an uncomfortable low average surface temperature (averaging around -20°C), a high pressure carbon dioxide atmosphere containing significant traces of hydrogen fluoride, fluorine, and other exotic gases, and lakes and small seas composed of hydrofluoric acid.

It orbits towards the outer edge of its star's habitable zone.

• It receives relatively low levels of stellar energy.

Mainworld Size (S)

Talchek is a Meso World between 10,400km and 12,000km in diameter. The world has a standard gravity between 0.7G and 0.9G. The horizon will appear about 4.7km away.

Mainworld Atmosphere (A)

Talchek has a Corrosive Atmosphere and possesses a concentrated gas mix or unusual temperature which requires the use of a Hostile Environment Suit or Vacc Suit. TL–9 or more advanced survival gear is required to settle this world.

• It experiences low temperatures.

Mainworld Hydrosphere (H)

Talchek has 05-15% of its surface covered by a fluid other than water. Wilderness refueling is not possible. Water for the inhabitants needs to be imported and extensively recycled. These worlds may be Hell Worlds.

• This surface fluid may be ammonia, methane, hydrocarbons, or other exotic liquids depending on the local temperature and environment.

Mainworld Geography and Topography

No centrally held map of the world exists within AAB Library Data records.

(Blank map, exotic world.)

History & Background (Dossier)

Talchek is a Danger World and is designated as an Amber Zone. It presents particular risks and dangers due to the environment or native life forms, laws or customs, or other conditions that are not well understood.

• Visitors are advised to act with caution.
• The IISS has designated Talchek as an Amber Zone because it is so dangerous to work and travel (especially by flying) in the planet’s highly corrosive atmosphere.

World Starport (St)

Talchek has a Class C Starport, an average quality installation which features amenities including unrefined fuel for starships, some brokerage services for passengers and cargo, and a variety of ship provisions. There is a shipyard capable of doing maintenance and other kinds of repair. Ports of this classification generally have only a downport, unless this is a trade port or system with an hostile environment mainworld.

World Population (P)

Talchek has a population of 60,000 sophonts (tens of thousands).

• This is a Nonindustrial World, too small to support the complete chain of production of most goods from start to finish.

World Technology Level (T)

Talchek possesses a Technology Level of TL–8.

• Common Communication technologies for this TL include: Fiber optics, improved telephones, and satellite communication and data networks.
• Common Power Generation technologies for this TL include: Improved geothermal and improved batteries.
• Common Transportation technologies for this TL include:
  • Land: Advanced automobiles.
  • Water: Triphibians and early artificial gills.
  • Air: Improved helicopters and hypersonic jets.
  • Space: Space shuttles, early space stations, and improved interplanetary spacecraft (System Craft).

World Government (G)

Talchek is governed by a Representative Democracy where government leadership is by representatives elected by eligible voters. What determines an eligible voter varies. The representatives determine policy, including selecting members of the bureaucracy. There can be referenda, votes by eligible voters on specific subjects.

World Law (L)

Talchek has a low law level. There are few laws, covering only important areas. There may be few or no law enforcement officers, the expectation is citizens will bring law breakers to the attention of the Judicial system. Legal proceedings will be fast, with few people involved. For interactions outside of the framework of the laws, cultural norms dominate. Portable energy weapons, body pistols, explosives, and poison gas are typically regulated or prohibited.

Imperial Landed Nobility

Talchek, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estate of an Imperial Landed Knight who acts as an Imperial representative to the world, and the fiefdom of a member of the Imperial Landed Nobility, who oversees affairs regarding the world at an Interstellar and Imperial level.

• It holds the estate of an Imperial knight, the Imperial representative to the world.
• It holds the fiefdom of an Imperial baron.

Trade Data

• Importance: -2 (very unimportant)

World Economy

• Resources: 7 (few)
• Labor: 3 (thousands)
• Infrastructure: 1 (extremely limited)
• Efficiency: -5 (extremely poor)

World Culture

• Heterogenity: 1 (monolithic)
• Acceptance: 2 (very xenophobic)
• Strangeness: 1 (very typical)
• Symbols: 4 (concrete)

World Timeline

Major events that have affected this world and the wider region that it lies within:

• The Year 0: the Third Imperium is founded.
• 300-420: the Imperial First Survey charts the system.
• 589-604: First Frontier War.
• 604-622: the Civil War.
• 615-620: Second Frontier War.
• 624: the Express Boat Network is established.
• 979-986: Third Frontier War.
• 995-1065: the Imperial Second Survey charts the system.
• 1065: the Second Survey is published. Information about the system becomes widely available.
• 1082-1084: Fourth Frontier War, also known as the False War.
• 1107-1110: Fifth Frontier War.

Historical Data

Despite its decidedly unwelcoming environment, the ease with which valuable chemical compounds could be extracted from Talchek’s corrosive atmosphere prompted the Darrians to colonize the planet around -1000. The colony was abandoned in the aftermath of the Maghiz, but the remains of a Darrian gas refinery have been preserved as an historical site. Talcheck was uninhabited for nearly two millennia after the Darrians pulled out. It was not until 975 that new colonists from Forine (Spinward Marches 1533) began to arrive. They were sent by recently-installed Forinean dictator Chorni Norep to extract and export chemicals to home system industries -- and to rid herself of political opponents who were too prominent to "disappear" en masse. Many of the original Talchekian colonists were political and religious dissidents, and the same was true of the Forinean colony that was simultaneously being established on neighboring Elixabeth (Spinward Marches 1532).

In 989, Norep announced plans to relocate millions of Forine’s surplus population to Elixabeth. The Elixabethan colonists, fearful of being overwhelmed by masses of impoverished immigrants, resisted by means of nonviolent civil disobedience. The colonists on Talchek, inspired by this example, launched their own campaign of protest and non-violent resistance aimed at loosening the grip of Norepian oppression. Forinean military commanders in both systems were authorized to use deadly force, and several hundred colonists died as a result. However, instead of breaking colonial opposition, these incidents merely escalated the conflict to a new level as the colonists resorted to sabotage and low-intensity guerrilla warfare. Mass arrests in both systems caused thousands of colonists to be incarcerated in hastily-constructed and unsanitary military detention facilities.

Their feisty and -- at least initially -- non-violent resistance to Norep’s oppressive rule had made the colonists on Elixabeth and Talchek a cause célèbre throughout many Imperial systems in the Spinward Marches. As inmates in the Forinean military stockades began to fall ill and die in substantial numbers, calls for Imperial intervention began to be heard. The Imperial authorities, who had been antagonized by Norep’s pro-Sword Worlds rhetoric and policies, saw the situation as a welcome opportunity to clip her wings. Therefore, in mid-990, they threatened to intervene “for humanitarian reasons” if the Forinean government did not begin negotiating with the rebels under Imperial arbitration.

The peace agreement signed several months later required major concessions by both sides. The settlers on Elixabeth and Talchek had to abandon their aspirations for independence, since both systems were to remain Forinean colonies under the rule of governors appointed by the homeworld. Norep, for her part, had to grant the colonists autonomy in a broad range of “internal” policy arenas (including immigration) while retaining total control over “external” matters such as defense, and extrastellar relations and trade. Furthermore, the two colonial worlds were given representation in a newly-created ‘Forine Assembly’ that was proportionally much greater than their relative populations in comparison to that of Forine itself. Finally, in order to ensure that all parties abided by the terms of the agreement, Talchek and Elixabeth both became client states of the Imperium and an Imperial naval base was established in the latter system.

Over the century since the Imperial intervention of 990, Talchek’s inhabitants have gradually eroded the powers of the Forinean colonial government to the point where it is now merely a figurehead. In particular, they made great gains in autonomy during the period of turmoil that afflicted Forine between the assassination of Chorni Norep in 1081 and the establishment of the new ‘Council of Swords’ government late the following year. Thus, while theoretically under Forinean rule, in practical terms the Talchekians are virtually independent and live in a society whose expansive social, economic and political freedoms stand in sharp contrast to the oppressive conditions found in the homesystem. The Forinean government tolerates this situation both because its economy relies heavily upon chemical imports from Talchek and because it does not wish to antagonize the Imperium.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This article has a secret.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller. The Spinward Marches (Game Designers Workshop, 1979), 18-19.
• Marc Miller. The Spinward Marches Campaign (Game Designers Workshop, 1985), 18-19.
• Marc Miller. Imperial Encyclopedia (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), 94-100. (UWP only)
• Rob Caswell. "Domain of Deneb: Sector Data." MegaTraveller Journal 3 (1992): 47-58. (UWP only)
• Dave Nilsen. The Regency Sourcebook (Game Designers Workshop, 1995), 48-49.
• Martin Dougherty, Neil Frier. Behind the Claw (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 77.
• Mike West. The Spinward States (Avenger Enterprises, 2008), 110. (UWP only)
• Martin Dougherty. The Spinward Marches (Mongoose Publishing, 2008), .
• Martin Dougherty. Behind the Claw (Mongoose Publishing, 2019), 123-127. (UWP only)
• Peter Gray - BARD OPAL 9533
• Contributor: Vendarth