SLYNES - Swirly Lights Yonder, a Never Ending Story

North King · Mar 21, 2010

I guess if we're on revisions... I don't want to be a nuisance, but shouldn't I have only 0.5e in fleet maintenance and therefore +5.5e?

Anyway, contact story later, maybe tonight!

Daftpanzer · Mar 21, 2010

Hey, cool stuff dudes :cool:

Now I'm going to have to make a guide to Satellian space like Iggy did

@Iggy you are welcome to my exploration info, just so you know.

Bil · Mar 22, 2010

North King said:
I guess if we're on revisions... I don't want to be a nuisance, but shouldn't I have only 0.5e in fleet maintenance and therefore +5.5e

You are absolutely correct, good sir. I have fixed the problem!

Also, I'll be getting to my own stories during the week, I hope. I don't have a whole lot as far as "necessary" stories, so I'll be able to apply a little more effort to stories just for fun, which is exciting to me. Let's see how it goes!

Haseri · Mar 22, 2010

I think this time around, the stories are going to be just pieces of fluff. Like from the Raer Traveller's Guide or something.

Matt0088 · Mar 22, 2010

Congrats on 1,000 posts Bil. :goodjob:

Daftpanzer · Mar 22, 2010

Brief Encylcopedia of Shaah-Hununn Inhabited Worlds and Systems: Version #1

Spoiler :

Haseri · Mar 24, 2010

Gorram it. Ruttin PayPal takes too gorram long to process payments. The fluff will have to wait until next turn...

I guess I'll think of something before Sunday.

Lord_Iggy · Mar 24, 2010

In Deep Orbit

Startraveler Tharaez drifted silently through space, the nearest sun a bright disc in the distance.

“Readings then?”

“A little odd. I’m not picking up much in the way of electromagnetic radiation or transmissions from the planet, but there are little gravitational anomalies all about the system... much like those observed in the wakes of Lelinthian hyperspatial transportation.”

“Hmm...”

Captain Paila Sae stood motionless, considering the possibilities.

“Perhaps it’s a Lelinthian colony.” Suggested Dio.

“A reasonable assumption... the anomaly density is highest around what appears to be a watery planet.”

“Plus...” interjected Dae Ro Phtan, “The energy signatures we are picking up from that planet seem to be artificial. If they’re natural, it’s like nothing we’ve ever encountered before.”

“At any rate then, it’s worth investigating. We will bring the Tharaez in closer and commence a more direct series of observations. Prepare Saen Ko Na for potential alien contact.”

Lord_Iggy · Mar 24, 2010

Contacts

Dorius Venjoor, one of the Jethan speakers for the Governing Council of the Thaej Alliance relaxed in a tangled net of vegetation outside the governing councils structures, playing at the material with one of his arms while speaking with Viset Renez, his Prenese counterpart.

So youve heard about these latest contacts?

Unfortunately, the briefings havent been heard by me yet so...

Dorius paused for a moment, waiting for Viset to continue, before in amused annoyance responding. The Prenese dialect was an odd one, which featured a peculiar tendency to trail off and leave ideas unfinished, for others to complete. Quite confusing.

Then Ill tell you. Youre familiar with the Chescani situation?

The contact, the Jahahunoun war...

Yes. Well, the Startraveler Rhethos captain has sent a log of his interactions with the Chescani. Evidently they were fighting themselves, but they managed to have a peaceful, communicative first contact.

One wonders why the Chescani would fight the Jahahunoun but and not us...

That questions the path to confusion. Ill take it as it is for the time being.

So they had a brief knowledge exchange, then left?

As far as I understand, yes. I dont expect there was a physical contact with them.

Interesting. I suppose well be contacting them more in the future. Do you suppose the Jahahunoun might attempt to do so after seeing our successes?

I still dont understand how their minds work... although it would be a good idea to share information of our contact with them.

Indeed...

Dorius got up, and the two Hletho quietly and deftly made their way through the dense undergrowth surrounding the base of the great blue and white edifice that was the councils chambers.

What about the Horindi then?

Ah, I just heard the latest transmission from Senkhad. The Hrkan and its fleet have left a small group of representatives aboard one of their orbital city ships.

Ah, thats good to hear. Any chances of contacting those on the planet?

They still seem quite touchy about that. It seems irrational to me, they are doing far more harm in preventing contact with the surface residents than in simply contacting them now.

Perhaps it is some quirk of their alien mindsets. Certainly youre familiar with the odd thought-patterns weve seen in other species...

Yes,

I would expect that they have a better understanding of their own psychologies than we do.

That is a possibility, but there are certain facts that one would expect to be true regardless of mindset- a population could be held in rather unpleasant conditions because of these actions.

But exposing them to their celestial brothers would bring up severe grievances. The Horindi are evidently willing to take the long path towards recovery.

Even so, no one should be isolated like that.

Lhaoleb.

They choose to keep themselves separate from the rest of our species.

Perhaps the isolation of the surface Horindi is akin to that. They would prefer to not know the truth- or alternatively, the orbital Horindi would be harmed by their knowing. Consider yourself. What if you were prevented from knowing of our devastating defeat and large-scale destruction in the Sea Wars? We southeasterners would likely be a lot warmer towards the Sahlons, Hithethos and the founders of the Alliance if we didnt know the history behind it.

Dorius gave Viset a confused expression.

I do not see the purpose of your statement. I do know my history.

You dont have to, I just want you to think.

Tikatikatikatik, you Prenese loon. Youre stranger than a Jahahunoun.

I try. But it is an interesting chain of thoughts.

About the southeast and the council?

Yes. You do know that were extending membership to the Premier of Rheth again?

How many times has he rejected that offer again?

Hisself, 17 times, once each year. Rheth in general, more times than I know.

They have been particularly insular as of late. Its worth looking into.

Certainly... I would enjoy a rapprochement with our erstwhile allies.

Yes, that would certainly be pleasant to see. You suppose theyll accept the offer?

Oh, of course not. But its nice to... you know, the Jahahunoun use the word imagine to describe thinking of possibilities which arent the case.

Youre a strange person Viset.

Daftpanzer · Mar 26, 2010

System G/D-B

'Yes, curious. The asteroid has metallic growths on it!'

'Hmm... Perhaps a natural phenomena?'

'A new lifeform? One that replicates amongst space rocks?'

'Hmm... There are those that predict we would find such things, self-replicating machines made by ancient enlightened races. Perhaps the machines themselves are sentient...'

'Well, perhaps you are all missing the obvious, that this is another space-faring species like our own. We have similar mobile asteroid bases in the home system. Some are even FTL-capable now.'

'Yes... And I believe the Helehho have yet to pass this way. Although it could be Lelinnhiae, or Geskanue for that matter...'

'Hmmph...'

'Hmm... Yes... Well... When can we get higher resolution images?'

'Main sensor module has overheated, so says Gurrui. The pod will down for another hour. Oh... And a micrometeorite smashed one of the lenses...'

'Hmmph... Again... Can't we get some shielding on that?'

'Maybe... Anyway... #11/1 is en route. So is the rest of the fleet, in fact.'

'Another excitement-rendezvous, indeed!'

'Hmm... Don't forget the mutual defence part...'

'Hmm-hmmph... What are the chances of surviving first contact again?'

'Well... It's on the up, I believe. Our fleet's had a good run so far... None killed or abducted...'

'Yes, we're almost like the Rehho! Hmma!'

'Hmm... Comparing ourselves to those aliens is a sign of mental dysfunction... Are we allowing aliens to set the standards by which we validate ourselves, or not?'

'No... They are simply inspirational... Inspiration, by my definition, is something that appeals to our inner spirit, something already inside of us.'

'I was at the Lelinthian first contact, you know...'

'Comrade Captain, I believe we have all been made aware of this over the past few years, especially as you continually remind us of this fact.'

'The point I wish to make is... I am feeling hopeful, at this very moment.'

'Well, good philosophy!'

'But then... I am also a little intoxicated right now... Hmmph... Anyway, rumble me when something interesting happens?!'

'Yes, Captain! Hmma!'

'Oh and by the way, we should probably start trying to communicate...'

'Already on that task, comrades. Oh now, look at this already... I believe it is sending radio signals at us...'

-

Exploration Ship #1/1 maintained a slow and steady approach to the strangely artificial asteroid. By the time it got within a light-minute of the object, there had already been a lengthy exchange of radio signals, unfortunately mutually ineligible in this case. It was not as easy as the Snuddue or Helehho contacts. But fervent signal analysis continued, as all the while the Satellian ships continued to broadcast the sequence of the first few prime numbers in binary, alternated between the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence. An hour later, there was still no breakthrough in communications, but the captain of #1/1 decided to venture across to the alien asteroid nonetheless. No signs of any real weapons on the alien asteroid-craft had been detected so far; it looked like some kind of explorer or mining vessel, and theoretically, the worst case would be the aliens refusing to open their docking bay doors. And so a capsule was launched with a single Satellian occupant, along with various assorted electronic devices and samples of rare ores.

Captain Hemmde found himself to be surprisingly calm and alert during the five-minute-long inter-craft journey. He took a minute to practice some self-centring mental exercises, readying himself to be an ambassador for his species. To his delight, emergency thrusters were not needed, as the alien craft obligingly opened up to absorb him. Through the capsule's exterior camera, he took one last glimpse at the surface of the alien asteroid, which to his eyes looked very much like a Jewel Ring mining station of the Satellian home system. Then his view was obscured by bright lights. Moments later, the capsule was evidently grasped by some kind of mechanical appendage; strange metallic sounds were heard, reaching through the former silence of vacuum. This was soon was accompanied by the faint roar of re-pressurising boarding corridor.

The captain checked himself over with the capsule's onboard camera. It was the first time he had looked at himself for several months. An environment membrane covered most of his body, giving it a deep blue-purple shine, contrasting with the red-grey skin around his face. Three long, disorderly antennae protruded through orifices in the upper surface of the membrane. Breathing apparatus covered his mouthparts. All too soon, the roaring and clattering stopped. He was still in contact with his crew back on the mother ship; all systems operational. The capsule's instruments detected tolerable pressure, temperature and atmosphere on the other side. He made an idle gesture for his own amusement - the equivalent of a shrug - then opened the capsule door.

Looking through his small-eyes, he saw a brightly lit room beyond, with a presumably alien figure silhouetted inside. Touching off very slowly and purposefully, Captain Hemmde floated beyond the door, and then did the best he could to bow respectfully in the narrow zero-g confines of the adjoining chamber, which was clearly not tunnelled for a being of his size. Then he slowly opened his big-eyes.

It looked like a dismembered Satellian. A withered, grey-green, leathery torso, with a single deformed arm, clinging onto the wall of the entry-chamber. Its main body tapered down to something like a pair of paddle-like feet. Three eye stalks or antennae protruded from what was probably the head. As the creature slowly turned and twisted in zero-g, a strangely fluid motion, it revealed a mouth opening someway back from the head area, currently covered over by two plate-like objects. These plates began to recede into the surrounding flesh, revealing hints of mouthparts inside the dark opening. It began to speak.

Ono - iti - konu - ki

'Amazing! '

'It talks fast, like all the other aliens!'

'How do we classify them?! They have only one limb!'

'Its time to give up on classifications, I think...'

'Stranger than the Helehho!'

'The honourable being is not bipedal, which bodes well for our relations, going by previous experiences...'

'It looks like it has a couple of feet on the end there... It might be bipedal in-gravity... Or maybe it can at least stand up occasionally...'

'Its so fluid! Like it has no bones!'

'Captain! Are we distracting you?'

'Yes! Now let me think!'

Thus was completed the first verbal exchange between the Satellians and Iokolu.

Lord_Iggy · Mar 27, 2010

Great story Daft!

Daftpanzer · Mar 27, 2010

Thanks Iggy! Yours too! What's happening with the Hletho and Pohm, by the way?

Oh and also, what type of star is it in the Haefar / Joliat system? I believe you told me but I forgot.

Bil · Mar 27, 2010

I haven't really had the right combination of time and motivation to write, but I'm hoping to get something assembled for posterity's sake before I update.

Speaking of which, DEADLINE SOON for those that might have forgotten. I have to say, I'm looking forward to the time when you learnin' folks are out of school and can dedicate more time to stories! Challenge the literary domination of Iggy and Daft!

Lord_Iggy · Mar 27, 2010

Well, NK and I have discussed Pohm first contact, but he hasn't written a response to my vessel's arrival yet. I've got a list of other stories to write, however, and hope to do a few this weekend.

North King · Mar 28, 2010

Lord_Iggy said:
Well, NK and I have discussed Pohm first contact, but he hasn't written a response to my vessel's arrival yet. I've got a list of other stories to write, however, and hope to do a few this weekend.

Apologies, I'll get to it. Also, I'll need to talk with Bil about the industrial peoples at some point.

Haseri · Mar 28, 2010

ECONOMY: 4e (+4e/turn)
TECHNOLOGY: 3
STABILITY: 8 [1e invested]
FLEETS: 2 (-1.0e/turn)

Spoiler :

MILITARY: 2 (-1.0e/turn)

Spoiler :

ARTIFACT: 0/50e

Orders:

Spoiler :

Sorry for the lack of stories.

Daftpanzer · Mar 28, 2010

System G/D-B

Captain Hemmde spent another few hours inside the alien craft, during which he dared to imagine he had grasped some basics of their language, and had showed the aliens - five of them were seen in total, much like each other in colour and size - how to operate the electronic pages he had brought with him. Mathematics, physics, star charts, biology of the Satellians, it was all there if the aliens could read it. He noted that his hosts became more active and communicative as time went by, almost frighteningly so by the end, suggesting they were somewhat stunned to begin with. Perhaps they really hadn't met any other sentient races before. The picture of the wider galaxy was looking more and more lonely.

The Captain had also brought across some samples of rare asteroid-mined rocks. One of the aliens seemed to reciprocate, disappearing for a while before returning with some large cylindrical containers - clearly designed to be grasped by an elongated alien limb, for the Captain's paws struggled to keep hold of them, even through the special friction surfaces of his environment membrane. He continued to play with the contents for some time after returning to his own mother-ship. A number of the alien ship-asteroids had now gathered nearby, while the Satellian Exploration Fleet #1 had also assumed a 'gesture-neutral' sphere formation; dozens of fully-extruded telescopes and sensor-bulbs were busy taking pictures and videos of the scene for the digital collective back home.

-

'So we're moving on? Heading for their homeworld, just like that? That's rather rude, isn't it?'

'Well... It works for the Helehho!'

'I suppose it does! But shouldn't we conclude things here, somehow, first?'

'You can stay, if you want, of course. We can spare a Capsule or two. Fleet Captain wants all the Big Ships moving out, though.'

'And what about retrieval?'

'Hmm...'

'Hmm, indeed! I'm not sure I want to spend decades floating around out here...'

'Well, you might make friends with them...'

'Maybe...'

'Anyway. Comrade Gurrui! What's our mechanical situation?'

Captain Hemmde raised one of his front limbs as he asked this, a gesture of respectful assertiveness, inadvertently raising up one of the shiny Aihokkolu gift-rocks that he was still holding, taking it close to one of the small mood-lights embedded in the wall/ceiling of the bridge. For a moment the room's surfaces were dotted with sparkling golden lights.

'Serious problems, thank you for asking! We're all overdue an overhaul, of course.'

'Ourselves, or our ships?'

'Hmmah... We've got another few superluminal runs left, after which I fear for our high-energy components. The kind we no longer have any spares for. And we've accumulated too much structural stress. It wouldn't surprise me if we start losing some auxiliary modules.'

'Is that all... Hmm... You should've seen what it was like on the first Great Expedition...'

'Hmmph... The rest of the fleet is in a little better shape. We might have to drop out. Or ideally, head back at a safe pace...'

'Well... Unfortunately, as Captain, I intend to follow the Fleet Captain, and to continue on most boldly!'

'Hmmph...'

'You never know, we might be able to barter for some kind of service at the Aihokkolu homeworld. Who knows what kind of tools they have. And surely they have some kind of orbital shipyards...'

'Hmm... Or maybe they just float around in asteroids like that. It makes a lot of sense, really...'

'Yes... It does appeal to our traditional aesthesis, doesn't it? To be in tune with the natural materials of space... These beings could be much wiser than any others we've met...'

'Hmm...'

Captain Hemmde returned his attention to the shiny alien gift-rocks.

Daftpanzer · Mar 28, 2010

System H/C-B 'Nammelh Aih ', Planet 'Mulummelah'

There were many different kinds of snow, Jemaa Nu was learning. The atmosphere of this planet had a lot of different ways of spawning it. Depending on the temperatures, pressures, windspeeds, and ratios of water to different chemicals, the flakes either stayed singular, or collected in stringy bundles, or stuck together in large clumps. The biggest particles were not necessarily the heaviest, and the heaviest were not necessarily the fastest to fall. Over the course of several hours, the snow would precipitate down as a succession of different densities, textures and hues - mostly soft gentle pink-whites, but it could also range from bright white to icy blue, changing the whole colour of the sky on the way down. Once one got used to the rather gloomy and heavy conditions at the bottom of the deep sea of atmosphere, one became more sensitive to its subtle mood swings. It could not be more different from her time on Ulann. It was all rather pleasing, in fact. Serenely ambient, quiet and gentle - air too dense to be stirred up by wind, fluffy snow smothering every vibration. Like being back within one's birth-egg. Safe and sheltered. Jemaa had to remind herself that was all an illusion...

Mulummelah was the most distant Satellian colony from Mar Aih that had been founded thus far. Out here, beyond the planet of the Snud, close to the Geskhue, in a certified Danger Area, and with a fledgling and barely self-sufficient centre of industry as their main asset, their continued existence was a comparatively low priority. This was confirmed when Jemaa finally located and excavated the toppled relay-pylon, the fluffy upper layers of snow consisting mostly of air and being no impediment to her well-trained limbs - quite different, she had discovered, to the compacted chemical ice only a few metres below, which seemed impervious to all but the heaviest power tools.

Jemaa's electronic page suddenly sprung to life and switched straight to the latest Species-Defence-Situation-Report. Combat Fleet #4 remained in close orbit - Jemaa had to trust that this was so; even with the best optical aids there was no way to see anything above this opaque atmosphere - but no reinforcements were scheduled, unless incoming Geskhue attacks were actually detected, by which time it could be too late. And even then, there were some estimates of a new Geskhue armada, twice the size of that seen in the Great Battle, heading straight for Sneed or Hmmaiaa. Shipyards were working flat out trying to assemble yet more Combat Vessels to match them.

Jemaa shrugged and headed back to her stilted habitat. By now there would be a new batch of mineral surveys to plod through. That wasn't much fun, but the Pioneer Kinship wanted her opinion on such things. Certain areas of expertise could be a liability, she mused to herself. What Jemaa really wanted to do was build some new atmospheric flyers, like the one she had built and flown on Ulann with the honourable Helehho known as Saam. The denser atmosphere of this world ought to be suited for very efficient, slow-speed, heavy lift designs - perhaps even a combination of wings and lighter-than-air cells. She wondered what Saam would make of the scenery here...

-

System I/C-T 'Mar Aih ', Planet 'Ahrmm', Moon 'Hmmaiaa', Orbit

Maian Unun Gurr was artificially immobilised and sitting in a shallow 'medical-bath'. The pink liquid only just covered his underside. Its main role was to support his weight and maintain his body temperate at the appropriate level, though other functions were to keep him hydrated and free from infection. In most cases, Satellian skin had the property of drawing up water like a sponge; a film of fluid would work its way up through the folds and grooves in his skin, working its way towards his mouth, eyes and anus, from where his body could steadily absorb as much fluid as it wanted, along with dissolved minerals, and doses of nutrients and antibiotics, most of these being the traditional plant-sourced kind.

Maian was also on a space station, one of the few spinning-wheel constructions in orbit of Hmmaiaa. As far as he could see, the vertically-curving corridor was dotted with medical nests similar to his own, most of them occupied. There was growing demand for Medical Kinships like this. Space was a dangerous place, and accidents happened, but the battles with the Geskhue had brought about a new range of sufferings. For every Satellian that met a heroic end, there was another that had to deal with some kind of crippling injury. And for millions of years, Satellians had been steadily losing the regenerative abilities of their ancestor species; certain organs could regenerate naturally if damaged, and lost limbs would usually grow back, albeit with less functionality. Over the past few centuries, medical technology - a rather lethargic development of genetics, and the kind of micro-machinery pioneered on the outer home-system moon of Hesmue - had enhanced these natural abilities and extended them to other body parts, and there were now viable artificial replacements for most organs, including eyes and voice-chambers, sometimes even enhancing their natural abilities... Some embraced such things, but Maian was not one of them. He had chosen to remain as natural as possible. It was going to be a long road of recovery.

He'd been injured over a year ago, while onboard Combat Ship #1/5, during the last few moments of its blockade mission in the system designated GC/T; a place of mysterious dark ruins haunted by the Geskhue. Enemy ships had arrived unexpectedly, and fire was exchanged before the decision was made to run away. One of the Geskhue shots hit the already-damaged Combat Ship. The exterior armour plates were unable to function as intended, and shockwave energy leaked into the internal structures of the ship. Maian just happened to be touching the wrong section of wall at the wrong time. Three of his limbs were instantly turned to mushy cylinders of skin. Then his larger digestive tract, one of his lungs, and various blood vessels all ruptured in various places. And that was before he was catapulted into the opposite wall, where he suffered more impact trauma, and had various organs pierced and sliced by portions of his own fractured skeleton.

Such shockwave injuries were typical among the battle-wounded, heat and vacuum exposure being the other leading statistics; Maian had in fact suffered a little of each of these by the time he was rescued. But the Medicine-Technicians told Maian he was very lucky to have survived such high energy trauma - he suffered little nerve damage, and though he turned stiff and red-black from all the internal bleeding, his circulatory system kept his core organs going long enough to reach the operating table.

He didn't remember much from any of those events. Just transcendent themes of shock, horror, detachment, and the final realisation of what this fighting was actually doing to sentient creatures, and his disappointment and embarrassment that he had failed to grasp the full magnitude of it earlier. And now he was a swamp-plant, passing the time by browsing the electronic collective, or by operating one of the exterior cameras, tracking and zooming in on inter-orbital traffic... A large shuttle was coming into view now, re-orienting itself with snorts of its nose-thrusters as it cleared the upper atmosphere of Hmmaiaa. It was a surprisingly elegant design, an 'inflated delta' with gentle curves in just the right places to cut down on noise and turbulence. A smooth bulge for the cockpit area was perfectly balanced by a variety of apertures for air-breathing engines protruding from the craft's belly. It was dazzlingly white against the red-orange mesa landscape below, with blue stripes along the leading edges. Maian found himself watching it with intent. Some said that the demands of aerodynamics were the only things capable of squeezing some gracefulness out of modern techno-industrial culture; Maian thought that was unfair - among the surface buildings of the star colonies, particularly Ulann and Ulumm-Bukk, there were some beautiful new structures inspired by the Snud, and by what had been seen of Hletho architecture. Traditional Satellian aesthetics were not to be discounted, either, though it was true that they rarely translated well into modern materials; there was still a deep-seated instinct to dig, rather than to build.

Maian went back to browsing the networks on the variety of pages he had arranged in front of him. Declining the offer of neural implants, he'd become quite adept at using his mouthparts to operate them. One article suggested a link between the mentally-unbalanced fugitive Murrumue Ulunn and some nuclear asteroid-modification explosives that had mysteriously gone missing; that was not a pleasant thought. Next he found some amazing nature videos from Ulann, imaged by hand from the depths of the jungle, all newly-documented species as usual. Then he found an article by a couple of trader-voyagers who had ventured to Haej and back. The Satellians already had access to thousands of pictures and videos of the Helehho homeworld and all its wonders. But the article confirmed, in Maian's mind, that it would be a lot more fun to go there in-body. He was too lost in ideas and images to notice the Capsule docking with the station...

Murui found Maian with his muzzle glued to the flashing screens. He hasn't changed, she mused to herself. Finally he noticed her, fixing his eyes on her and nudging the electronic pages into standby. She had been told he was still unable to speak normally, or make much of any kind of gesture. She preferred that, actually. From the edge of the medical-bath, she reached across and gently touched him on the side of the face, while gently purring to him. It was a cliché, but she did it anyway.

-

North King · Mar 28, 2010

Confusion

There are five major Pohm colonies. Denim was the first, a world of large continents and only narrow continental shelves; its oceans were rich but its vast swathes of land unfamiliar. Ukupu was built to counter Betik’s quick expansions, a world of beautiful, sweeping vistas, with rugged terrain and narrow, deep seas – while the sights were exotic, it was difficult to establish colonies here: those that did exist were either tourist locales or one of the numerous mining operations. Thiq was an ocean moon of a gas giant, with massive floating platforms supporting a fairly large population.

And last, Kukukik, a world of shallow seas and open plains, where the rare rugged hills seemed to hold clues of an ancient primitive species, long vanished by some mechanism of deep time. How appropriate, then, that it would be the sight of the true first contact that the pohm would ever make. It was a contact they were woefully unprepared for...

...Nai found another heater in storage and brought it back to the governor’s office, concernedly gnashing her mouths at the thought of her master’s chills. He had been sick for several days, refusing food for the last two, and whistled strangely in his sleep from time to time. It was not uncommon for pohm to get the chills, but this severity was rare, and worrying.

She found him almost wrapped around his computer terminal, drawing an idle map of the expansion of the colony he had been dreaming of for some time. At the sound of the hiss of the door, he looked up.

“Nai, what a pleasant surprise.”

“I brought another heater for you. I think it should work better.”

“Thank you, my dear.” He took it from her and placed it behind his back. After a moment, he sighed contentedly. “Thank you. Do you know, I’ve been meani –”

He broke off mid-sentence. His eye looked up and to the right – a clear indication that some sort of alert had gone off on his internal computer.

“Good God,” he mumbled. “Surely not this far out.”

“What is it?”

“There’s an unknown ship approaching planetary orbit. We don’t recognize the design, and it’s certainly not one of ours... I’m so sorry.” They locked eyes for a moment, and she gave what she hoped was a courageous blink. He turned and spoke into the colony mic:

“Launch fighters, and send the following EM transmission to the incoming vessel in all pohm languages: ‘unknown vessel, you are approaching the colony of Kukukik, lawfully claimed by Betik as acknowledged by the Qenim Concord. Identify yourself and stand down any and all hostile activity.’”

Nai shuddered a little. With luck, this was some sort of mistake, some civilian vessel. If the Great War was starting again...

North King · Mar 28, 2010

Like Gods

Now here was something strange. Inthe’s ship had followed the lead of a very long-range spectroscope, hopping from system to system to investigate what might be water-bearing planets. Most of them had been dead ends, of course – sulfurous, disgusting iceballs unfit for pohm inhabitation without prohibitively expensive terraforming, or gas giants with trace water in their atmosphere.

They had jumped into this system, not expecting to find much different (though always with the occasional hope), and were suddenly confronted by a planet of suitable gravity and... well... life.

Life was not unusual to the pohm. They had found it on several other worlds – Denim and Kukikik most notably – but it was always extremely primitive, nowhere near sentience. This world, under a strange, perpetually cloudy sky, held the regular structures indicative of intelligent life.

What strange creatures they must be, too. Clearly they lived above the waters, breathing the air and living on land as though it were any other ocean. It was as though the lopim had been plucked given brains, waddling around in strange buildings that belched forth smoke (what possible purpose, he wondered, could the smoke have?).

Wait. That last question. He looked up and to the left, navigating the confines of the Web with a natural-born ease, and found an encyclopedia entry on the chemicals that were being produced – apparently used in some obscure chemical reactions that the pohm had only rarely used. Another strangeness. Perhaps species who lived above the waves developed differently than the pohm...

But those were all trivialities. How could a species have risen to sentience at the same time as the pohm? Only if they advanced at a hysterically slow pace would it even make sense. Technological civilizations should be spaced out on the order of some hundreds of thousands of years, not only a few hundred apart.

Not the worst that could happen. They weren’t space-faring, after all... But the sheer evolutionary coincidence was mind boggling.

“All right,” he said, and pulled a switch to transmit back to HQ thousands of light-years away. First all the preliminary data they had gathered on this planet. Then, a question. What should I do?

There was silence for over an hour before the reply came back. Make contact. Send a shuttle to the surface.

“Very well.” He looked over at his second-in-command, a young pohm by the name of Hiamma. “Take the fourth shuttle. Make sure you’re well-armed. Do not hesitate to call for backup.”

“Aye, captain.”

* * * * * * * * *

Hiamma was, of course, frightened out of his wits. What a strange world that his craft now entered, a world of clouds, where the people seemed to use chemicals and acids for everyday purposes. It was like some kind of weird, dystopian novel. But he steeled himself anyway, pointed the nose of the shuttle down, and watched as a bright halo appeared around his craft, like a meteor of some strange design, pointed rather than round, a knife, not a stone.

After a few minutes, he let the ship up a little, and started the slow glide towards the nearest population center, broadcasting greetings over all the EM frequencies. It fell like a monstrous metal bird of prey, settling down on the largest flat surface...

OOC: Sorry for the quality; bit busy these days.

SLYNES - Swirly Lights Yonder, a Never Ending Story

blech

canonically ambiguous

Prince of Space

Emperor

Deity

canonically ambiguous

Emperor

Tsesk'ihe

Tsesk'ihe

canonically ambiguous

Tsesk'ihe

canonically ambiguous

Prince of Space

Tsesk'ihe

blech

Emperor

canonically ambiguous

canonically ambiguous

blech

blech

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