Kagayou

In hidden caverns underneath the mountains that ring Cathay, a few kids found a cavern that had a pool that glimmered in the darkness. They played in the caves and one day, one of them fell into the pool. He clambered out, a pantleg ran into the glimmering liquid that pooled on top of the water and clung together in clumps deeper in the pool's depths. Fortunately for them, they did not disturb the creature that lived at the bottom of the pool.  
Unfortunately, his father was a scientist on the Mothership. The stained clothing would have gone unnoticed if his father hadn't found it when he was sorting the laundry. He took the pants into the his lab and tested the substance and discovered that it was a compound that had strange properties. He called it kagayou, the word for shimmer in Japanese.
Kagayou could glow in the dark. When exposed to light, it held and reflected the energy for longer periods. After further tests, he discovered that it could also serve as a fuel. The Mothership's military and scientific leadership decided to keep this under wraps to avoid stirring up controversy over what seemed to be another kind of fossil fuel. They used it for paint that needed to be visible at night.
The AGP and the Founders Sect would have found themselves on opposite sides of the argument. The AGP would have wanted to use the fuel in place of solar and wind because it had combustive properties. The Founders Sect would have looked back at the history of Earth and pulled the caverns down on top of the pools hidden in the mountains.
Unfortunately, the universe had other plans.
An AGP scout was researching data the Mothership had catalogued about the continent of Coracle and found an odd stray comment about the hidden pools beneath the Estralen Mountains. His curiosity and a healthy antipathy toward the Founders Sect and Cathay, led him to take a vacation to Cathay where he went hiking and also enjoyed a bit of spelunking. His discovery of a cavern with a pool that seemed full of this substance triggered a series of secret negotiations between the Founders Prophet and the head of the AGP and nearly let to open conflict between the two groups.

Type

Biomaterial