Twin Tabula

Name: Twin Tabula (Tabulai / Tabuloo) Location: Darunia Sector Discovery Date: 2X11 Mass: 2.9 trillion teratons / 1.3 trillion teratons Class: XXII Planet Size: 21,000,000 / 10,000,000 Atmospheres: Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, small traces of Cholride and Hydrogen. Quarantined: Deadly strain of Gryoxis Calcintain inhabiting both worlds. Off limits to all actions outside of approved Federation approval.

History
Ever since it's initial founding, Twin Tabula has been a mystery amongst countless other planets in terms of its formation. Though certainly not a unique case, the formation of planets so close to each other is certainly not common place amongst the cosmos. It is believed that early on it the planet's formation, a large piece of molten core ejected itself from the main mass, forming a small satellite around the main planetoid. Unique is the fact that over the course of the planet's cooling, it too formed an atmosphere. In fact, the orbit of the smaller planet (Tabuloo) is so close to it's large sibling (Tabulai) that their atmospheres actually scrape each other. This in turn causes breathtaking ion storms up in the upper atmosphere. Dubbed "Twin Tabula", the planet was colonized by the Federation Colonial Ministry and used as a base for scientific research.

The Federation Colonial scientists on the planet were amazed at the very planet itself. The unusual forming of the two planets was just one of many curiosities. This phenomenon was also responsible for a variety of other natural oddities found only on Twin Tabula. Scientists found that the gravitational pull of the planets caused many of the plant and animal species to grow double the size in half the time. The only oddity about this was that shortly after, the death rate of these subjects was almost sped up, causing most subjects to expire. Just as it seemed that Twin Tabula was beginning to offer up it's secrets to share with civilization, it also began to share one of it's most deadly secrets; Twin Fever.

Slowly, every single member of the Federation science team began to fall ill with an unknown disease. Dubbed Twin Fever, the disease struck without warning. Victims suffered from massive headaches, comparing of vision impurities such as double vision. Before anyone could decide what was actually wrong, the later stages of the disease became evident: dehydration at a double rate, extreme flashes of hot and cold, and horrible cramping of the joints. All the while the double vision never faded until the disease took its toll. When the vision impurities finally subsided, most victims where on the verge of death or crippled from this disease. After careful studying from Federation Science Ministry, it was found that the disease was carried by a viral strain known as Gyroxis Calcintain. It also appeared that this viral strain was in fact the very reason why everything seemed to "grow" at double the rate, and also explained the deaths of previous subjects. The Federation abandoned all future plans with Twin Tabula and quarantined both worlds as a safety precaution.

Word of this incident was not without silence, and it was only a matter of time before Space Pirate High Command found out about the incident. It is not known what has transpired of their plans since, though Federation High Command keeps an especially close eye on all actions in this system.

Features
Tabulai and Tabuloo for the most part were lifeless. Large oceans of chlorine and other trace materials have been found on the surface of Tabuloo. On Tabulai, great, barren plains of exposed rock could be found jutting massively into the sky. It is believe they are the remnants of the planet's original formation.

Life
With the exception of the Gyroxis Calcintain, very few organisms exists beyond the cellular level. It would seem that life has not had time to advance that far. Before Federation scientists evacuated, they were on the verge of discovering massive ecosystems on the microscopic scale. Further investigation may have led to the discovery of others, though the violent viral outbreak cut any hope of that short prematurely.