Capella is the common name of Alpha Aurigae, the brightest star in the
constellation Auriga. Capella is actually a pair of giant
stars orbitting approximately 1 million km apart (less than 1 AU).
Capella A is a G8 III giant 2.69 times as massive and 10.2
times as large as the sun. Capella B is a G0 III
giant, 2.56 times as massive and 8.5 times as large as the
sun. The stars have a combined luminosity over 150 times
greater than Sol. The AB binary is also orbitted by a second
pair, two M-class red dwarves that lie around a light-year away.
Capellan stars have seven surviving planets, the third of which is a
refugee colony. On the whole, it is a somewhat bleak system
without a lot of interesting features, apart from the arrangement of
the stars.
Capella I
A red sub-jovian world. It has a 5:2 spin-orbit
resonance (rotating five times for every two orbits), which is caused
by the shifting central masses of the stars.
Capella
II
A venusian world.
Capella III
A semi-terrestrial world. Capella III has a moderately thin,
but breathable atmosphere (oxygen masks must be worn
for strenuous activity).
Over the course of the Proximan War, during which the enemy casually
employed many so-called "dirty" (dangerously radioactive) weapons,
those members of both the Alphan and Terran races that had survived the
attacks themselves were often left horribly deformed and
suffering from a large variety of genetic mutations and maladies.
Though many were left sterile, the number that remained quite
capable of producing offspring was still rather large, and their
children were as often as not born as warped and twisted as their
parents.
After it became clear that such unfortunates were being persecuted at
an increasing rate, the Terran and Alphan governments and the mutant
enclaves met, and agreed to a plan where the mutants would be gifted
with a world of their own as soon as a suitable one could be
located. Soon thereafter, a survey mission reported a
marginally habitable world in the Capellan system. It might
not be a paradise, but they would be self-sufficient and
free of the hatred and violence of their less open-minded fellow
creatures.
A large fleet of small red transports (cheap ships manufactured in bulk
during the war, not big on amenties but servicable and available)
carried the mutants to their new home over the course of several
months. Then, by their own request, the colonists were left
to their own devices.
Officially, Capella is a colony of the Terran Federation.
Unofficially, it is an independent world with minimal
official contact. The inhabitants are not particularly
hostile, they simply prefer to be left alone.
The population of the colony consists of both Terrans and Alphans,
although it is sometimes hard to tell which species a particular
individual belongs to, given the diversity and extent of the mutations.
They show all signs of developing into a culture where
deviation from the physical norm is considered a mark of beauty.
Capella IV
A blue, sub-jovian world.
Capella V
A Jovian gas giant.
Capella VI
An icy world less than 70% of the size of Earth. It is in a
9:1 orbital resonance with the third planet.
Capella
VII
A moon-sized body on an eccentric orbit that gives it a period
of 293 years.
