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Gamma Velorum (Regor)
Gamma Velorum
Image from Steve Bowers
Gamma Velorum Aa and B; the other stars in this multiple system are barely visible at this distance
Star: Regor Aa, Gamma Velorum, WR 11
Type: former Wolf-Rayet star, now magnetar
Distance from Sol: 1221 ly
Companions: Regor Ab, O-type star, 1.2 AU separation
Regor B, B-type star, 15,000 AU separation
Regor C,D,E, assorted dwarfs 20,000+ AU separation

Regor (Gamma-2 Velorum) was for many millennia a closely observed object. This star was named after an Atomic Age space pioneer, Roger Chaffee, who died in an early Moon-rocket fire. The brightest component of the six stars in this system, a brilliant Wolf-Rayet star 100,000 times as luminous as Sol (mostly in UV), was expected to collapse and undergo a supernova explosion sometime between 150000 AT and 400000 AT. During the Age of Establishment the emerging NoCoZo expanded its territory towards this star, and the apparently imminent explosion began to affect markets adversely; especially in the Vela sector.

A transapient cosmic engineering concern, Vaneld Stellar Engineering AG, sent off a small fleet from Argelander in 2870 towards Regor, a distance of 970 light years. Using the new Displacement Drive this trip could be accomplished at 0.6c, more than half the speed of light. The Vaneld AG starships would arrive in 4486 AT. In fact the ship was upgraded during the flight using information sent from Argelander, and arrived in 4082 AT. To cut down on cost they did not take a wormhole linelayer with them, hoping to bring one in later when the star was stabilised.

During the flight the star was observed closely, and these observations were compared with data from more distant supernovae with similar characteristics. This observation confirmed that Regor was likely to collapse about three hundred thousand years in the future.

The Starlifting Effort

Vaneld AG hoped to have time to extract some of the outer shell of carbon from the star, using the vast amounts of energy emitted to lift the matter out of the gravity well. This would slow down the eventual collapse of the star, and hopefully (as already achieved at Betelgeuse) this would postpone the explosion indefinitely.

The Vaneld starlifters placed a huff-and-puff mass removal system in place, the strong stellar wind and radiation made working conditions very difficult with interactions between the Wolf-Rayet star and the nearby secondary star (itself a hot class B supergiant, only one astronomical unit away) producing a high level of X-rays.

Thanks to the high luminosity of this star, the outer layers of matter were lifted with increasing rapidity, and transported to high orbit where a large number of matrioshka hypernodes were constructed.

In the Current Era these hypernodes have been connected by numerous comm-gauge wormholes to one another and to the Known Net, and support a S:4 archailect generally known as Roger.
 
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Appears in Topics
3800 to 4450 AT: The IntegrationMiddle Regions/Hinter-regionsNon-Coercive Zone (NoCoZo)
Significant Historical Events
 
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 30 April 2010.

 
 
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