"If you intend to settle it, we should start with one small environmental station. No large population until we understand the seasonal cycle."
"How long?"
"One year for a good baseline."
Rhoswen frowned.
"A year?"
"That is how planets work."
"You can fight a war in less time."
Elowen looked at her.
"That is also how wars work."
Aurelian decided not to get involved.
He looked at the planet again.
It needed a name eventually.
Not now.
Naming something too early had a way of making people act as though the decision to keep it had already been made.
For now it remained Survey World M-17 on the map.
Boring.
Useful.
Exactly right.
"Send a proper survey team," Aurelian said. "Elowen leads the environmental work. No settlement yet. No public announcement."
Astra glanced toward him.
"You expect outside interest."
"Eventually."
A high-quality habitable world inside an expanding frontier territory would attract attention if the Alliance learned about it too early.
