Darkheart colony
The Darkheart colony, usually referred to simply as Darkheart, was established by the Earth Empire in the Darkheart system at the turn of the 31st century to study the temporal phenomena known as Darkheart. The Darkheart system was a semi-detached binary, consisting of a class K4 red supergiant and a neutron star. A portion of the neutron star's mass was displaced elsewhere in the system by a dimensional bridge, where it cooled and formed dwarf star material, forming an apparent planet. It was there that the Darkheart colony was situated and had access to the Darkheart through a pyramid built on its surface.
Darkheart was founded in final years of the Earth Empire and thus became detached from the rest of human civilisation when Empire fell. Eventually, they were visited in the mid-34th century by members of the Galactic Federation, an egalitarian community which had replaced the Empire. As observed by Captain Gillian Sherwin of the Federation ship the Piri Reis, Darkheart was a skewed version of what the Earth Empire once was, with "all the trappings of a military dictatorship, with an unusually high number of Adjudicators, who had de facto control of the colony.
The governor of the colony was Viscount Gothard. The influence of the Darkheart meant the colonists ceased to age, so Gothard was still serving as Viscount in the mid-34th century, until he was killed by Koschei. (PROSE: The Dark Path [+]Loading...["The Dark Path (novel)"])
