Planet Cid
"Cid" is a terrestrial planet far from the space lanes. It was discovered about two centuries ago by a mostly human exploration ship, whose captain named it after a designer of several successful computer strategy games.
The initial survey revealed little that made the world stand out. The highest form of life were some small hoofed mammals about the size of a dog, and some kind of rodent that in the survey area seemed to be living in underground nests. There were chared remains of what appeared to be nests made from hay and twigs, possibly struck by lightning, but there was not a cloud in the sky in the survey area even though the ashes were warm. There were also a number of doll-sized swords and tools found in the survey area, suggesting that some spacefarers with children had stopped by at least once.
As the world was far from the Federation's space lanes and settlements, no further missions to the world were made. Then becon signals were coming from the world, identified as being from the Zenth-Trad, a large science vessel conducting research into experimental robotic technology that was declared missing after the crew left the ship and returned to find it gone (supposedly the reason no one was left to watch was in order to take advantage of a "group rate package" on an amusement-park world). The ship had been gone for two decades.
A visit by the USS Freedom revealed a surprising anthropological find. Not only was there civilization there, but one developed by inteligent rodents! The "Cidi" were only several inches high, and capable of mapipulating tiny electronics too small for unaided human hands. They had taken the technology aboard the Zenth-Trad, and were not only able to repair the ship but were able to make use ofit's experimental robotic technology to make humanoid-sized powersuits of which the parts could be folded and rearranged in seconds to change into a rocket-powered planes.
The Freedom had little time to survey the situation. Due to the interference of attacking Kzin forces (the Hedgmony denies involvment), the Freedom was kept from making contact with the locals. Although the Freedom was able to drive off the starships of the invading force (though were unable to give ground support for local forces against the Kzin ground troops until they retreated), the ship was ordered away despite having left a functional warp-capable shuttle behind. How these sapient chinchilia-like beings will respond from their intitial contact with aliens being a force of renegade Kzin remains to be seen.
