Its good for me, I get to post this OTT story ahead of the update, as intended
Awakening: Part II
Generally, Satellians have never been enthusiastic about the subject of statistics, as they find it awfully tedious. Luckily, these days there were a few individuals willing to plod through the figures, or at least register things with a central computer, on occasion. Kaalikaa Mu, the representative of the Great Gunnun Gurinn Plateau, was currently picking out some highlights for Hurrdue Naa, the former Adjutant Director, whose status was now somewhat ambiguous given the lack of a true Core Director at this time. In fact, things at the core of The Agreement were rather more confused than usual.
'... two reported shuttle crashes following the EM effects of the most recent Lelinthian event. Six people dead from unsuccessful bail-outs, six others mangled and still in medical hibernation. Another person is still missing after a Capsule transport went astray, there are currently five ships involved in tracking that one down. Some satellites are still non-functional.'
'Yes...'
Esteemed Satellians were slowly trickling into the vertically-squashed spheroid that was the Grand Meeting Room. The chamber's ambient electric lighting was still set to an atmospheric low; Kaalikaa's electronic page glowed noticeably brighter as he prodded the 'next' button. Hurrdue Naa had the kind of genes that gave him thick flaps of purple-grey skin over his joints as he reached old age, instead of the usual patterned carapace. He had an especially segmented appearance in this low-light, contrasting with Kaalikaa's smooth green-grey skin.
'Winter. Official storm casualties listed at just under three thousand so far, most of them old wanderers as usual, however there was that giant comm-tower collapse up on Mannunnurrue mountain...'
'Always said it looked a bit wobbly.' Hurrdue Naa automatically looked up at the dome ceiling as he spoke. He noticed the lack of a Hulunnurr plant or any other kind of mood-setting device hanging overhead. Most unusual. Good thing he'd gone and got himself mildly intoxicated beforehand. He turned his attention back to Kaalikaa's summation.
'... And the Galnajuur cliff-city collapse. And the Urrunumue caldera popped, that was a big one. Oh, also, a VTOL got too close to that super vortex over the Jurnnu Fields Spaceport, three dead there.'
'Hardy sightseers? Most unfortunate. Hope they got a good view, at least.'
'It did look rather impressive from the camera drones. Anyway, Spring. Fifty registered deaths from spore-related disease so far. Always the old and young.'
'Hmm... I got something growing in my airways once...'
'Yes, you showed me the surgical footage of them drilling and pulling it out'
'Did I?'
'Several times, yes.'
'Hmm, well. It never did me any harm, was what I was going to say.'
'I recall you took two decades of rest afterwards.'
'That was for other reasons! Gaah, all this talk is making me itchy.' Hurrdue Naa took a moment to wiggle his mouthparts in displeasure, before pushing himself up straight. 'Oh now, the spaceport, how long till its open again?'
'Yes... Well, who knows... Final deposit was up to ten metres in places. Nice sediment, sucked up from the north sea, valuable. But some biohazard, rotting things in there. Only a couple of landing pads dug up so far, they're thinking of just building new ones on top. But most of the local farming Kinships have a Joint Consideration to have the whole valley re-designated as a farming zone again. Considerable Kudos backing it.'
'So I hear, Gaah... You remember those years when traffic shifted to Great Hullue Mesa? So many dust-storms, clogging up everything. And then trying to work a magnetic track back to the Undercity, crossing the Great Hullue Fault... Great hassle!'
'I concur... Although I do appreciate surface-grown food, I must admit.'
'Gaah, how many farms do we need? I was practically brought up on protozoa, you know.'
Kaalikaa was just waiting for him to say 'and it never did me any harm', so that he could share some humorous internal thoughts with himself. Unfortunately Hurrdue Naa actually continued thus. 'Its what all the space-farers used to eat, too. Protein soup every meal-day. If you ask me, we're exporting too much fancy food these days. It loses goodness no matter how they pack it.'
This brought several other Satellians into the discussion. And so the Core Council of The Agreement was busy discussing the relative merits of different kinds of vegetables when the Arbitrary Director and the last batch of arrivals finally showed up. The usual ceremonies had gone out of fashion with all the recent emergencies, but the Arbitrary Director did at least lead them in customary nodding/salutation to each other. It was then noticed that there was an extra Satellian standing by the Grand Table.
'I invoke my right to bring an honoured friend to this meeting' said Harrumunn Rarr, representative of the Combined Technical Kinship of Ulumm-Bukk.
'I hear your Kudos is a wearing a little thin, honoured representative' said Hurrdue Naa.
'Greetings... My name is Gurrumunn Manaar...' said the rather wobbly, pale-looking fellow.
'Manaar, yes it is you! Amazing. You look terrible.'
Phase one, thought Rarr.
He then had the opportunity to make his presentation first. And he got right to it; he proposed nothing less than an all-out attack against the Geskani occupation of planet Sneed, using pretty much all ships and weapons currently available to The Agreement. His armament-coordination presentations were becoming something of a routine, something which acted as a useful cushion in this case.
'The Combat Fleet is already en-route to the home system, as previously agreed. I took the liberty of making certain other arrangements ahead of time. Therefore, we can proceed within days, if concurrence is reached. The expedition will be all-volunteers of course, and led by those most capable. Ones like myself will be observers and technical advisors.' Rarr relaxed his body posture, but left his various combat projections running on the central table's 3D projector. Rarr sensed a mixture of horror, excitement and curiosity from his fellows.
Phase two.
The Arbitrary Director began what she hoped would be the decomposition of this proposal. 'Hmm... Firstly, why exactly is this so important you, this whole adventure, may I ask?'
It was a good question, one that made Rarr visibly recoil, shifting his weight to his rear limbs. 'Well... I believe those of us involved in armaments design do not want to be remembered for ultimate failure, while we wait for hostile forces to grow and attack us with force before we have a chance to adapt.'
'So you are prepared to see hundreds, thousands of your fellows sacrificed, as an experiment?' the Arbitrary Director was not being deliberately offensive, she just wasn't making any effort to soften her words. 'And leave the rest of us defenceless in the meantime?'
Before Rarr could answer, Hurrdue Naa butted in. 'Give him more credit, please, honoured friends. I'm sure we can all see the conjunction that is before us. We have had similar thoughts, yes?'
'I do not deny the risk of failure and death' Rarr continued. 'Yet, honoured friends, I propose, for the health of our species, we must get to grips with the grittiest and most unpleasant aspects of survival in the local universe, sooner rather than later.'
'Well, I am wary' said the Representative of the Great Gunnun Gurinn Plateau. 'Ulumm-Bukk is already getting its extra fusion plants and launch tubes. Now the Representative wants to lead a, what do they call it, hunting party? There must be other ways to gather this experience..'
'Ulumm is going to provide far more than it consumes in the years ahead' said Saiaa Muu Narr, representative for the New Combined Technical Kinship of Maraa. Rarr was feeling grateful to her once again. 'I find myself agreeing to this concept. It has a right-ness to it. As I will be talking about later, I'm not sure we should be so concerned about further Lelinthian incursions.' That caused something of a stir in the chamber, while she continued. 'One question, however. What do the Snud say about this?' She turned to Rarr. 'You have been in contact with the honoured Port-Captain, yes?
Uh-oh, thought Rarr. 'Our Snuddian guests are not... Enthusiastic about the idea.'
'So... Just what kind of resonance are we hoping to build, here?' asked the Arbitrary Director.
'I still believe we can contact resistance fighters on Sneed itself' replied Rarr. 'We have reason to believe that they put up a strong fight against the initial Geskani arrival, and may continue to do so.'
'Hmm... I believe your plan revolves around them too much. Suppose there is no resistance...'
'If I may speak...' Gurrumunn Manaar was poised, as if ready to leap into the air, yet his stance was completely nonchalant at the same time. Rarr wondered if his uncle practiced this posture, or if it was some effect of awakening-sickness. 'My first thought, after my honoured relative informed me about the Snud and their predicament, was, why aren't we doing anything about it? It seems that alien friends are much harder to come by than the ignorant ones. And the exchange was beneficial, yes? It seems obvious to me...'
'Hmm... Well... To be honest, there's only so much Snuddian 3D-vision that one can enjoy' interjected Hurrdue Naa.
'Then other items of exchange would soon come to the fore? Not to mention, psychological benefits of -'
'Yes, yes, I agree. Hmm... In fact... I believe we are in general concurrence, regarding the main proposal?' Hurrdue Naa swept his mouthparts from side to side, to emphasize the sweeping encompass-all gesture that he was a little too lazy to do with his main body.
There wasn't any real opposition from the rest of the table. Gurrumunn Manaar had been about to make a little speech, raising the issue of the cosmic significance involved. That the universe was obviously weighted towards the emergence of interesting things. And that the great, passive, remorseless creative force, whose existence nearly all Satellians agreed upon, obviously wanted interesting things to occur. Stagnation of any kind was eventually overcome, or only kept around to provide an interesting contrast with the non-stagnant. If endurance and survival was a goal, the best way to achieve it was simply to be
interesting, and to accept change, even if one didn't really want it. It was better to have one's resonance in tune with the overall theme of the greater universe. Anyway, Manaar was glad he didn't need to make such a speech. It would have seemed excessive, and might have impinged on his young relative's dubious state of Kudos. Now he could get back to sleep. After seeing how all this played out, of course. If anything actually got going at all.
'I cannot represent this' stated the Arbitrary Director. The words came as a relief to her. Had there ever been heavier issues for any Satellians to deal with? Having learnt how to survive on land and in space, the only real threat to their species was now the aliens, and now they were talking about stirring up the fire...
'Well... That is understood, with gratitude for your honourable work, though I'd rather you reconsider.' Hurrdue Naa was not entirely convincing.
And so the awkward issue of leadership was raised again. Probably for the best, but its going to be an especially long meeting now, Rarr thought to himself. The Awaiting Concerns were stacked up tall as ever. And that was before the door opened to let in a rather excited-looking messenger...
'New aliens have arrived at planet Ulann. They have landed and our comrades are in contact with them!'
A subdued wave of excitement and alarm rippled through the chamber, while Rarr did the equivalent of a face-palm.
This could ruin everything...
