Silk

Announcing the new trading opportunities on the asteroid Silk (designed by Freya), which can be found NE, N from the asteroid belt entrance. Armstrong Cuthbert are now offering both cargo and akaturi jobs to and from Silk, the exchange is open for business, and the workthings are queuing up to come work in factories. The map of the asteroid belt at http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/maps/solmap.html has been updated to show the new asteroid (scroll down to see the asteroid belt map).

Silk is an asteroid inhabited by an exosolar race of arachnids. Little is directly known about the Xiphosurans, as they call themselves. They can communicate via modified Galactic comm units but their society and conversations are not particularly suited to humans. Thus far they have declined all requests, by sociologists and other credentialed academics, to conduct studies of their community. They are, by nature, highly skilled manufacturers and traders. They are also natural mathematicians and devote considerable efforts to its study. Everything the Xiphosurans create or know is for sale, if the price is right.

Among the few facts known about the Xiphosurans is that they arrived in the Solar System on solar sail crafts spun from silk. Some settled the asteroid known as Silk, the rest continued on their cryptic journey. They seem to periodically migrate with the spaceblooms but the relationship between them is not clear. They may occasionally be observed launching their hatchlings into space with the assistance of spaceblooms. The arachnids can function in vacuum, again we know little of that mechanism and they are content that not much is known about them. They prefer a diet of certain worms and mollusks, which they cultivate; but also seem to enjoy a variety of Solar insects.

http://fed2.blogspot.com/2005/03/new-silk-asteroid-opened-for-trade.html