Mayiy (Magellan 6)

Mayiy (from the first Arabic colonists, meaning “aquatic”) is the 6th planet from the star Magellan. It is an ocean planet with almost no land-masses, that nevertheless is home to 450 million Terrans clustered into about a dozen densely-packed industrialized cities. From space, it would appear that Terrans on Mayiy work on floating sea platforms. In fact, these platforms rest atop intricate structures called surfscrapers, themselves a part of massive underwater cities. Fish and aquatic mammals and birds from Earth have been repopulated here, and many breeding farms exist on the planet. Additionally most undersea vessels have been given a decidedly marine appearance.

People & Culture

Mayiy’s culture is water-based, yet is still very much a part of the corporate culture that consumes The Triptych. Land is limited and cramped, so except for the essentials like spaceports, most activity takes place undersea. Many Mayiy natives breathe water as well as air, and a few breathe water exclusively thanks to a splice officially called Aquarin. (While an AI might say “You’re an Aquarin?” most Terrans abbreviate with the more familiar “You’re Mayiy?”)
Terrans who cannot breathe water typically remain on the surface bases of Mayiy, and handle most of the space dock work on the planet, while Mayiy often handle undersea work. When Terrans do venture underwater, they often use a form of scuba gear that allows communication while submerged. Nearly all surfscrapers are equipped with pressurized locks to dock incoming vessels.
Many electronics firms are based in Mayiy, as the ocean serves as a natural coolant for the enormous servers required to run the Triptych. Other companies based on Mayiy include retail, energy, environmental, and spacecraft manufacturers. In fact, NM Starships is the galaxy’s #1 starship manufacturer, specializing in the construction and maintenance of submersible spacecraft. Many of these are built to resemble Terran sea life: turtles, whales, eels, or even squid, to make undersea travel more enjoyable for those inside the craft as well as those in the wave-scrapers.

History

On arrival in the Magellan system, Mayiy was initially ignored due to its lack of land masses, and the number of corps that began focusing on the concept of The Wheel. Though a number of corps attempted to give Magellan 6 a proper name, the name that stuck came from Commander Thelios Rashad on a scout craft for Trell Mariners, the first one to actually set up a colony on the ocean floor. Water had been a precious resource even in the Triptych, and desalinating and shipping water, especially to The Wheel once it was completed, became huge business for corps like Trell.
Structures were woven into the native rocks on the ocean floor, which grew into supporting massive vertical buildings called wave-scrapers that extended all the way to the surface. Once Rashad and Trell Mariners landed, Mayiy got inundated so quickly, any animal life that may have been in existence on the planet was likely exterminated in the process. Many species of fish and sea mammals were transported to Mayiy from Earth, though, and were quickly engineered to taste terrible to Terrans. This would ensure these animals would flourish with a lack of natural predators. This seems to have worked, and the seas are swarming with genetically engineered ecosystems, comprised of successors to dolphins, whales, and fish of all variety, all the way down to sea kelp and mosses.
Several corps, in tandem with Progenature still scour the seas of Mayiy for evidence of prior life forms in an attempt to recover and store their DNA. To date, several dozen species have been recovered, nearly all plant or fungus-based.

Type

Planet

Location under

Magellan (star system)