
  The Star System
  ---------------
   
   The system containing 871-438 consists of a remarkably stable main
   sequence G1 star, the barren dust ball is in the third orbit. There
   are two asteroid belts in orbits four and six. In addition, there is a
   pair of gas giants: a small one in the seventh orbit and a large one
   in the ninth. The system's Oort cloud contains the usual hundred
   billion or so comets.
   
   The two asteroid belts mostly consist of small bodies up to a maximum
   diameter of ten meters (roughly fifty displacement tons). Over eighty
   percent of these bodies are carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. The
   remainder are formed from various different ice compounds. Neither
   belt contains sufficient mineral resources to be of interest to
   belters. The inner belt has a diameter of about 0.1 AU and the outer
   about 1.5 AU.
   
   The small inner gas giant is a dull bluish-green disc composed of
   eighty percent hydrogen and fifteen percent helium. The remaining five
   percent of the giant is composed of the usual heavier gasses: ammonia,
   argon, carbon dioxide, chlorine, fluorine, methane, neon, nitrogen.
   Also detectable in trace concentrations are a multitude of other
   compounds created from these basic gasses as well as some other
   heavier elements, notably sulphur. This planet has three rocky moons
   and two icy moons orbiting, none of which showed any signs deserving
   of further investigation.
   
   The large outer gas giant is your standard whitish-orange giant
   composed primarily of hydrogen. Detectable quantities of ammonia,
   fluorine, helium and nitrogen exist. Notably absent is the presence of
   carbon based gases and compounds. This gas giant has a system of rings
   containing large numbers of very small carbonaceous bodies. Also
   present in orbit are upwards of fifteen natural moons in a variety of
   orbits.

