Signus B3
Kind: Star system with two habitable planets (B3a and B3b) Location: Unstated Controlled by: Galactic Human Empire (colonised “in the early days of the empire”)
Summary
A binary-planet system colonised early in the empire’s expansion. Both worlds independently developed Mind-Blending Technology around the same time — likely through their close trading relationship — and both inevitably merged their entire populations into planetary-scale superorganisms with distinct personalities of their own. The two planetary minds then began corresponding: first radio messages asking after “vague matters,” then starships, then declarations of love.
To this day, passing ships can pick up faint radio transmissions from Signus B3 — one planet proclaiming its adoration of the other, waiting for their orbits to align again. The narrator calls this “the romance of Signus B3.”
Appearances
- Ch. 07 — 101 Things to Not Visit in the Galaxy Before You Die: Described as one of the galaxy’s stranger curiosities — not dangerous, but odd enough to catalog. The narrator’s tone is wry affection.
Related
- Mind-Blending Technology — the technology that caused both populations to merge
- Galactic Human Empire — the system was colonised in the early imperial period
- Consciousness — the planetary superorganism is an extreme endpoint of collective consciousness; the romance is two such minds in a slow, cosmic courtship
Open questions
- Are B3a and B3b still nominally part of the empire, or have the planetary superorganisms effectively seceded?
- Is the romance mutual in the same way — do both planets express love equally, or is the dynamic asymmetrical?
- Are there any individual humans remaining on either planet who did not merge?
- When is the next orbital alignment?