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Description
Kuiper-Orbit Station MNTR-7 is, at first examination, a fairly typical example of one of these distant orbital research and mining facilities; manufactured artifacts gleaming in the distant light of Acheron, buried in the strata of the primordial iceball it uses as insulation and fuel. Here and there lights glow, marking docking stations for the occasional speedship carrying supplies or carting off production, and tiny beacons whirl in close orbit, broadcasting identification signals to nearby vessels.
Come closer, however, and differences become apparent; odd strctures buried under the ice, with hints of unusual colors for a place so far from Acheron’s life-sustaining glow. Delve inside, and the halls of MNTR-7, or Minotaur Seven, as the inhabitants call it, prove to be a riot of greenery and burgeoning life, far from the normally sterile environment found in the first six MNTR stations. The inhabitants call themselves Minaurans, and more than a few are amateur historians, students of both the earlier periods of the Acheron system, and of the remnants of history that still remain about the long-vanished homeworld of humanity.
While theoretically a monitor station scanning the depths of space for signs of other intelligent life - preferably human, but any potential sign at all being welcome - the Minaurans are, in truth, fairly perfunctory in their duties, instead using most of their time and computer processing power to model their theories about humanity. According to them, a new ‘Age of Darkness’ is due to fall upon the worlds, with a collapse of social order and the probable deaths of colonies and stations ill-prepared to fend for themselves.
