
Arrival
-------

   When you leave jump, you're 100 diameters from the primary star: Efate
   is only 68 local stellar diameters out, so your ship will come out
   between 194 and 394 light-second from Efate.
   
   Coming through the RQS rigamarole is a good bit easier here than in
   most places: Virus is not nearly the threat that the Zho's can be, in
   the eyes of the local Efate. So long as the traveller doesn't do
   anything blatently stupid, he should be able to arive at the starport
   in a reasonably short time.
   
     REFEREE: The world name is also used to refer to singluar and plural
     Efate.
     
   Looking down on the world as the RQS quickly rifles thru his ship,
   he's likely to mistake the Vistoner plate as the world's sole
   continent. While it sure looks like one, it has actually been
   shattered into something like a jigsaw puzzle. Each island - about 300
   to 700 km in diameter - is separated from its neighbour by a 1-4 km
   moat, which goes down 3-5 kilometers in depth. How this highly
   unlikely geographic formation came about is still under some debate:
   since there's no impact crater, the answer must reside in some truly
   odd plate tectonics. The world itself seems geologically dead: there
   are no mountain chains, and no volcanoes. The bottom of the moats is
   covered by silt and dirt settling in from above: estimates are that
   the crevices go down another 2 km below the silt floor.
   
   After barely setting foot on this world, each member of the company
   will be given a holographic Efate guide - an avatar - to help the
   visitor navigate his way through the customs and traditions that
   govern Efate society. The guide will refuse payment from the visitors:
   he is usually a construct by a local tourist agency, and will
   encourage the visitors to use his agency's facilities.
   
   The harsh chemicals that render the air poisonous to humans stems from
   the TiiKii plant. While rarely seen in the cities where humans
   frequent, they dominate the shallow swamplands of Efate's equatoral
   regions, released during the sudden, massive "explosions" of the
   plant's sexual organs. The Efate - ever gracious to their human
   visitors - feel ashamed by this, but can do nothing: too many species
   depend on the TiiKii's foul gases for their life cycles.
   
   Humans are not advised to enter the swamplands: if they do, they must
   be very careful where they trod: stepping on a root can trigger off
   the explosion.

