Bune

The Planet

Physical

Bune is the second oldest human colony world, after Prime, and is located only 7.730 parsecs from Earth. It is basically Earth-like, though being about three-quarters the size of Earth it has a substantially lower gravity. The atmosphere is thin but contains enough oxygen to support humans easily. Bune's sun is the K0 V star 86 Herculis (visible from Earth in the constellation Hercules).

Bune is a warm ocean planet with many small to medium islands scattered through shallow seas.

Biological

Bune's high oxygen levels come from the masses of native microbes in the oceans. Multicellular life never evolved, and the land areas are free of any living things.

Humans have, of course, imported earthly plants and animals. Palm trees of various species and grasses are the most widespread non-crop plants. Bune's oceans now support more whales and dolphins than Earth, plus a wealth of fish and other aquatic species. Animals living on Bune's precious land areas are mostly restricted to livestock and pets.

Civilisation

More than 5.1 billion humans and 3.4 million aliens (mostly Larrokites) call Bune home. The population is necessarily concentrated into great cities on the larger islands, as well as smaller congregations on almost every available piece of land. Several Larrokite towns exist in shallow waters near some of the larger islands.

Economy

With an abundant ocean ecosystem, Bune exports significant quantities of seafood as luxury products to worlds unable to grow their own. Bune is also a popular tourism destination, with enough tropical seas and warm island paradises for millions of visitors. Several interstellar finance and legal companies are based on Bune too, since it is a pleasant place to have a corporate headquarters.

Bune imports a good deal of manufactured goods and electronic technology, since there are few places suitable for either extracting or processing raw materials or turning the materials into finished products.

Politics

Bune is represented on a global scale by a loose coalition of island states. Each island is free to make its own civic laws, and contributes one member to the Global Assembly. The Assembly decides planetary policy, but has little to do with the assorted legal systems. Essentially Bune is a commonwealth of mostly independent island city-states. However, the Global Assembly presents a united front to interstellar councils, and so Bune is usually considered to have a single global government by non-natives.

Because of this arrangement, laws vary from island to island, though not as dramatically as in a truly balkanised world like Prime. Society is fairly free and enlightened, though regulation of weaponry varies from strongly controlled to virtually completely unregulated.

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