Free The Man-Kzin Wars 01 by Larry Niven

oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, silicon, and neon are present in significant quantities; magnesium and iron are not insignificant; other elements early in the periodic table are detectable. There has naturally been a concentration of heavier atoms in the planets, especially the inner ones, as gases selectively escaped. They are not mere balls of water ice. “ I t seems clear, therefore, that this system formed out of a cloud which had been enriched by mass loss from older stars in their red giant phase. A few supernovae may have contributed, too, but any elements heavier than iron which they may have supplied are so scant that we will only find them by mass spectrography of samples from the solid bodies. They may well be nonexistent. Those older stars must have come into being as soon after the Beginning as was physically possible, in a proto-galaxy not too far then from the matter which was to become ours, but now surely quite distant from us. ”
    “ A s we dared hope," said the Crashlander. Tears glimmered in her eyes like dew on rose petals.
    “ O h, good for you!" called Yoshii .
    “ A relic – hell, finding God's fingerprints," Carita said, and clapped a h and to her mouth. Ryan grinned, Nobody else noticed.
    “ H ow many planets?" asked Saxtorph .
    “ F ive," Tregennis replied .
    “ H m. Isn't that kind of few, even for a dwarf? Are you sure?" “ Y es. We would have found anything of a size much less than what you would call a planet's. ”
    “ E specially since the Bode function is small, as you'd expect," Dorcas added. Having worked with the astronomers, she scarcely needed this session. “ T he planets huddle close in. We haven't found an Oort cloud either. No comets at all, we think. ”
    “ O uter bodies may well have been lost in the collision that sent this star into exile," Laurinda said. “ A nd in fifteen billion years, any comets that were left got ... used up. ”
    “ T here probably was a sixth planet until some unknown date in the past," Tregennis stated. “ W e have indications of asteroids extremely close to the sun. Gravitational radiation-no, it must chiefly have been friction with the interstellar medium that caused a parent body to spiral in until it passed the Roche limit and was disrupted. ”
    “ H ey, wait," Saxtorph said. “ D orcas talks of a Bode function. That implies the surviving planets are about where theory says they ought to be. How'd they avoid orbital decay? ”
    Tregennis smiled. “ T hat's a good question. ”
    Saxtorph laughed. “ S hucks, you sound like I was back in the Academy." “ W ell, at this stage any answers are hypothetical, but consider. In the course of its long journey, quite probably through more galaxies than ours, the system must sometimes have crossed nebular regions where matter was comparatively dense. Gravitation would draw the gas and dust in, make it thickest close to the sun, until the sun swallowed it altogether. As a matter of fact, the planetary orbits have very small eccentricities- friction has a circularizing effect and their distances from the primary conform only roughly to the theoretical distribution. " Tregennis paused. “ A further anomaly we cannot explain, though it may be related. We have found-marginally; we think we have found-molecules of water and OH radicals among the asteroids, almost like -a ring around the sun." He spread his hands. “ W ell, I won't live to see every riddle we may come upon solved. ”
    He had fought to get here, Ryan remembered .
    “ L et's hear about those planets," Carita said impatiently. Her job would include any landings. “ U h, have you got names for them? One, Two, Three might cause mixups when we're in a hurry. ”
    “ I 've suggested using Latin ordinals," Laurinda answered. She sounded almost apologetic .
    “ P rima, Secunda, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta," Dorcas supplied. “ T op-flight idea. I hope it becomes the standard for explorers." Laurinda flushed. “ I have agreed," Tregennis said.