njc, very interesting discussion of the technical aspects of a planetary orbit. The only weird thing about Dareau is that its magnetic poles are on its "side," like Uranus. (In fact, in a prehistoric version of my stories, they took place on Uranus. A very different Uranus than ours, probably exists in Earth-38, where Mars and Titan are inhabited, too.) So yes, there is an intense magnetic field and it does shield, just like Earth's does. The seasons are about the same as Earth's, although there are areas, like on Earth, where it is about 70 degrees all year round. In the central forest, there's fall, winter, spring, and summer. Dareau will be closer to one sun for half the year and to the other, the other half.
I don't worry about mass, except to point out each sun is about 85% of the Earth's sun. Another complication of setting this on another world is the existence of warp drive. As it depends on warpage of space, that probably isn't a good idea close to a gravity well that already warps space. (Not something considered by Gene Roddenberry, as for him 'warp drive' was just a cool way of referring to FTL drive). Alos, no navigation is possible in warp drive, as the ship is outside the normal universe. You hope your computers are working right. This isn't a big point, as there is also a mystical portal that people use to navigate between the two planets. It has the disadvantage that all of reality get scrambled in it, and it's not for the faint of heart.
For me, it is all background. The story takes place on the planet, and the rules there are, much to the humans' chagrin, the rules of magic, not science.
