Ziirkaa warns that time should pass after the McTavish jumps, to allow the coronal dishcarges that are sure to occur time to dissipate.
12 hours after jumping, the three ships jump back through together, in close formation. The McTavish closer to the sun to provide extra shielding where possible to the other two.
All three beat a hasty retreat and move out of the star's immediate area.
McTavish spends 2 weeks traveling to the other star, and another 2 searching the alpha loci sites. It finds no jump points.
The freighters and probes search the beta star, and over the course of the first 3 weeks, find 3 tightly clustered (relatively speaking) warp points. All within two days travel of each other at even the slowest speed (100gs).
The meds seems to be doing their job just fine - for the Captain managed to keep her lunch contained on both jumps, even with their temporal proximity. And the slight unease she did feel was nothing compared to the euphoria when the data came back.
"Three nodes ?!"
She laughed. The worry that had been nagging at the back of her mind, that they were still stranded but on a bigger island, seemed far. Three nodes - that really is something! Best of all, they were all far away from the one leading home - so noone would stumble over that one accidentally. We will just have to be careful to not lead them there. We might need an excuse to study this star ... Hmm...
"Let us set course for them immediately - we'll need to discuss our approach in detail."
While the others work, and with little to do, the Baroness starts work Leaning Arrogation and piloting.
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Holt looks over the charts and then replies to the captain, "Honestly, I'm not sure it matters. They're all fairly close, so why not just start at the closest one?"
Single
Red Dwarf
2 Giants
None
3 Planets
6400km, Low gravity, 0.375g
8000km, Low Gravity, 0.475g
8000km, Low Gravity, 0.625g
months
hours
x10 Hours
Thin
Trace
None
50% Liquid
No Liquid
Cold, -25C
Life
Thriving
Thousands
Representative Democracy
Low Law
TL 7
Trade Balance : 1
The McTavish sends through two of the five probes on Point B. 23 minutes after transit, rather than the standard 8 hours, both probes reappear, broadcasting an alert.
Unknown artificial signals were picked up by the probes. It took them 23 minutes to maneuver, triangulate, and return.
The broadcasts are in an unknown format, in the low range radio bands.
The system on the other side is a red dwarf. Transmissions appear to be coming from the innermost planet of the system.
Go"s the the brige, as soon as the call go's out about the probes.
Once there she waits to see what the is going on.
Ceres felt her mouth run dry. Unknown signals... She remembered the dire warnings that had come with the 'Lost Colony Protocol'. We are not alone. Hailing the other captains and all the officers, she quickly calls for an emergency council. They would have to decide upon a course of action - and quick, in case they had been noted.
"What are the odds of an lost colony developing a new radio protocol?" She suspected 'slim to none'. "Most likely this is our first encounter with an alien culture ..."
"I suppose that would depend on how deep into the long night they went. If they lost all records of Solomoni empire, they may have had to reinvent radio from nothing." Ziirkaa strokes his bear thoughtfully, "Could also be an alien colony that is friendly with the new... confederation. Enough speculation, pipe the data to my console please."
Ziirkaa can't make heads or tails of the transmissions. They are not Imperial. Not even a derivative. They're not even remotely similar to anything he's seen before, other than being modulated waves on a radio spectrum. There's data in it, but it's not a standardized dataset.
"Could we ask the McTavish's AI if it understands or has any idea about the signals. If buried in its hidden date cares is information then now would be the time for it to let us know. Also If they are truly Alein I could try to communicate with them. If we go fully passive what are the chances of use being detected ?"
The ship is the one reporting unknown signal, so asking it again doesn't do any thing other than get it to repeat that.
The probe is too dumb to understand known vs unknown signals. It only understands Command Signal and Other Signal (not command signal). :) It just records everything not Command Signal and then sends it to the ship when it can.
Holt looks over the reports of the probes and adds "I'm not saying it is likely, but we could also be picking up passive signals from some automated systems."
Biting her lower lip, Holt says "In any case, as much as I hate to say it, we should assume that they might be hostile. Maybe we should probe the next spot? If it seems dead we can check it out and if it actually is empty we could stash the rest of the fleet there, and have a path of 'escape' that doesn't lead back home."
"Holt is correct. Even if they are friendly - we cannot be sure that that relation will last forever. Or that no-one else will compel them to reveal our secret. Better to set up an 'fake' route home first. Launch another probe into the next hole, but set it to return within an hour at first - we will need as much information as we can as fast as we can. On a second thought, send two probes!"
One
Red Dwarf, temp mod +2
One
One
One
Orbit : 0 : Belt
Orbit : 5 : Belt
Orbit : 8 : Gas Giant
Converted to Belt
The probes come back an hour later with nothing to show, no radio emissions, just a small dim red M3 sun.
"Very well - set course for the jump node and hold your thumbs!"
The Captain tensed in her chair, but if it were in anticipation of the jump itself or the situation at hand were hard to tell. Hopefully she could contain her dinner for all the rapid jumps to come!
The McTavish jumps to the new Delta point. On the other end, it sees a dim red star, just as reported by the probes. It picks up no obvious transmissions on any band.
"Well, let's see what is our here."
Passive picks up a single gas giant, and what might be an asteroid belt. It's iffy on the asteroid belt.
Other than that, nothing.
Ceres grayish hue signalled that the Captain didn't really enjoy this latest jump. And she was not looking forward to another rapid succession of jumps. But, one thing at a time. Sighing she rubbed her temple trying to make the worst of the nausea to go away. With a thin voice, she assessed the situation.
"Not much. Which is probably exactly what we were looking for. We'll probably need to take a look with active scans just to make sure - it wouldn't do to hide from aliens at an alien station or something. And we'll need confirmation about that belt - and distance. Which feature would hide the fleet best ...? A gas giant might provide sensor shadow while a ship running on low power might blend in with the belt, depending on its composition."
Active Scan
Orbit : 0 : Asteroid Belt (hot and radioactive)
Orbit : 5 : Asteroid Belt (Low density and thin)
Orbit : 8 : Gas Giant (About the size of Saturn, no rings or moons)
The system also begins running the HeeThee equations, coming up with a few dozen likely spots for warp points.
All of the red dwarfs seem to be within a 30 lightyear cube so far, a small cluster of them. The clustering is generating a higher than normal number of Alpha Loci for the size of the star.
Holt turns from the Captain and says "Give me a moment to run some simulations..." as she starts tapping at her console.
The gas giant or the sun are the only places to hide. A drone could be left to act as a relay, it's not going to give much in the way of sensors over long rangers. But it would act as a comm relay.
Holt looks up from the console and says "The best place would be behind the gas giant. That'll let the freighter refuel and keep them hidden. They could also hide out on the other side of the sun. Also, we could leave a probe to relay messages without them having to expose themselves, though I'm honestly not sure what situations in which that would be useful... at least given our current circumstances."
Makes tea and sandwages for every one, wile she waits for something more useful to do, after her years of highly spesilized training, and the mouths spent just siting in space looking on as the crew worked.
The two freighters move to a Lagrange point on the other side of the gas giant, and a probe maneuvers to act as a relay.
A couple of days later, once they are hidden, the McTavish ports back to the other system, then back to the system with the radio signals.
The system is a red dwarf system. There appears to be at least one gas giant. The signals are coming from very close to the star itself, and may be coming from a planet.
The system is a red dwarf system, the sun has a surface temperature of 4540 Kelvin (average). There are 3 planets and 2 gas giants. One gas giant is roughly the size of Neptune, the second the size of Jupiter.
There is a planet orbiting close about the dim sun, just inside the habital zone. It is a 6450km diameter, low gravity planet (0.375g). It has a thin oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, with water vapor present. At least half the surface is liquid, although it appears to be mostly ice. It takes approximately 53 standard days for the planet to make a complete rotation. Estimated average temperature of the planet is -25C.
The signals are coming from here, faint power signals are also being detected. A second world orbits at orbital slot 4, it's also a low density planet, no atmosphere, and approximately half a G in gravity. It's 8110km in diameter. A third planet orbits in the 8th slot, 7900km in diameter, with a moderate gravity of 0.63G. Planet two is a rapidly spinning body, taking about 7 standard hours to complete a rotation, while planet 3 takes only slightly longer at 10 hours.
The signal is coming from near the sun, it's slightly distorted by distance, but it's not a natural thing. It's modulated radically differently than anything in the databanks.
The signal has a distinct pattern, there's a 1.48 second burst of high amplitude, then a 4.44 second dead spot. Then two 1.48 second bursts of high amplitude separated by 1.48 seconds of dead amplitude. Then there's an 8.88 second dead spot, followed by three 1.48 second bursts of high amplitude separated by 1.48 seconds of dead amplitude. Then the signal begins rapidly fluctuating, most likely containing data of some sort for 4.23 minutes. Then there's 8.88 seconds of dead space, and the pattern starts over again.
The broadcast seems to be a self contained packet, the first 3 'tones' indicate a start to the data. Then the next bits of data indicate the atomic structure of hydrogen, then helium. Next it has the description of the local sun and a bit of data that seems to indicate the size of the sun based on hydrogen. It's fairly accurate. Then using those numbers, several sets of number relationships build up a decoding map for the rest of the transmission. No words, but, the planet is described via it's size and orbit, and then a temperature in relation to the sun, then a large number. Then the planet's temperature drops, and the second number falls rapidly. Then again it falls, but the second number falls slower, but still rapidly, not in a direct correlation. After several more lowerings of the planet's temperature, the second number is a tiny fraction of what it was before.
Ceres nods and orders the crew of the other ships to set a course for the gas giant. When the tea and sandwiches are served, she thanks Annara with a nod. She tries a bite but the translation sickness turns it into a large lump in her mouth. The tea goes better. With a soft curse at her condition she puts down the cup and call Annara back. There was something she had to ask, something that had been gnawing at the back of her mind since she learned about the unknown signals.
"Annara. There is something I must know - about your training..." She trailed off, hesitant at first. But she needed to know. I'm not even sure if she knows herself! With a determined effort she continued. "It is with regard of those unknown signals. Could be an strange sort of pulsar, could be a corrupted ruin. Could be nothing - could be anything. But, most wondrous and dangerous of all, it could be another civilization - another species. So I must ask you: could you - would you read the mind of an unknown kind?"
----------------------------------------------
Before making the jumps back, Ceres will ask Vathan to keep the marines armed and ready. She speaks with uncharacteristic solemness and paces back and forth as she briefs him.
"We cannot be sure of what waits us over there - and if our previous incursion was noted. There is a slight chance that *something* will be waiting for us - and that *something* might not be benevolent. No matter how unlikely, I want every conceivable risk covered."
She pauses and stops her pacing. Instead she knots her hands behind her back and gazes off out trough one of the windows.
"I can't even guess how such an exchange would go down, but if it does - and does so poorly - we must safeguard our people. There can be no traces of the memory banks to find the logs, no shard large enough to piece together such information..."
With a laugh she turns back and smiles, back to a more carefree mood.
"I know I asked you to prepare blow up this ship once before - would you do the same again?"
----------------------------------------------
The first jump provokes a pained grin from the captain. The second doesn't seem to make things so much worse. Perhaps the adrenaline counteracts the symptom she mused. Resisting the urge to order all sensors online and to rush over to the scanner console, Ceres sits straight in her chair as if on needles.
"Alright. This is it. Let us glide in for a while before booting up all sensors - obscuring the jump-point might give us an slight advantage if we need to run. What can we pick up via the passive sensor arrays?"
Over the weeks and months, Vathan has been determined to understand the entire crew. His method began with observation then gradually transitioned into testing how they react in different contexts. His priority was the marines, but he watched everyone.
One could say this behavior came from his love of hunting by successfully understanding everything about your prey. One could say that it came from his training in the Army and Marines where the real mantra is hurry up and wait, which he would want to put to some use. Either way, it was how he passed the time. It facilitated his sobriety and provided enough entertainment to avoid any regretful carnal activity. Of course, unregretful carnal activity was performed with supreme discretion.
__________________________________________________________________
"Aye, aye, Captain. I trained to demolish the ship before we departed, sir." Vathan professionally replies to Ceres. She is the one member of the crew who receives the lightest amount of his testing and highest amount of deference from him.
Annara takes Viktoria her [Viktorias] privet meeting room/cabin. She puts her tray down and takes a seat, she bows her head and rubs her temples with both hands, then looks up.
"We should have had this talk some time ago Viktoria, But I wanted to talk about this when the time came. Well this most definitely is the time."
She looks up at Viktoria a kind of resigned smile on her face.
"I feel positive I can Vicky. I have been practising for the last three years. Its not a science you understand, each Psion is different, each of us has limits and styles. I have been working with large animals, even sea living one's. I can get emotions, thoughts, flashes of feelings and ideas. The way the feel and think at that moment. I know what a bear thinks when it has lost sigh and smell of its cub. fear, hopelessness, anger, then it the cub is back, joy happiness, relief and anger at who took the cub. Did you know Horses can feel the temperature of the ground thought there hove's, Dolphins see in sound, its the most amazing feeling to 'feel' your way around the world"
She grins.
"I know Aggy would like to think it was our talk some years a go that chilled me out, but I feel it was as much my learning to see though the eyes of other beings. Not just intelligent ones like us, and let me tell you Dolphins are as sentient and self-aware as us if not more so. Its just their, experiencel-reality just has no models mathematics and the mechanical abstracts that we use to interpret ours. Their language is one of 'sound-sight' density and position, theirs is the equivalent of an oral tradition. Their history that of the pod, shot lives by our scales of time. A wild tribe of Sea-Mammals living in the jungles of sea weed. Leaning, feeling that, thinking as they do, in the moment, thats what I think really changed me. Aggy helped of course"
She winks, then looks down at the floor.
"I was tested at a very young age Vicky, they said I was one of the most powerful Psion's the academy has ever seen in years. With they added a near perfect range of talents, for what that's worth. I still can't bring myself to change my own body, that kind of Psion talent makes me feel very uncountable, but some can."
She then gets up and go's over to lock the door, all the wile talking.
"As you train your talents it gets harder no easier you expand you see. With in the Academy we have recordings of Psions that can do extraordinary things."
She looks around the room then checks the recording and comms mikes are off.
"What I am about to show you must be kept between us, not even the core knows I have developed this ability. I worked it out because we have been Jumping so much. Each time we jumped I have pushed my mind into that moment, the forming of a singularity. My mind feeling it, I'm sorry there are no words for it in any logical terms."
She is now stood in the middle of the cabin, arms by her sides she closes her eyes and then after two deep breaths then she has moved, there is a slight sound of air moving. her clothing falls to the floor empty, wile Aannra is now stood next to where she had been. Naked, stood in the same position, just now five feet to the left of where she had been. She opened her eyes and looks at Vicky, a mischievous grin on her face.
"I can't tell you the number of secret nights off base I have had with Fernán because of this, but I'm not letting the high ups know what me and my husband get up to"
She giggles like a teen then puts her hand out, her underwear comes up to meet it and she stars to get dresses.
"I can move small things as well, Objects and clothing but only small, that I could do at the academy, they travel the long way, so its nude only"
She grins at Vicky, Once dressed she takes a seat, she is now back to business.
"So in academy lingo, yes I can read minds, its one way at the moment, them to me but I am working on that. Empathy to surface mind reading they class its range. Time wise, I can keep my concentration going for about a minuet at a push, with drugs say about 5 times a day tops, after that I get headaches so bad I can't think. I have a light telekinetic power, there are some poison tipped darts back in the weapons locker, I can use with that. But I very much hope I never have to. The one thing they don't know is that I can 'Shift' or as they put it Teleport. Longest shift I have ever done was planet side from the ISS. I also have to have an idea of where I am going, this was simple, next to myself, but big shifts have are risky. You have to know precisely where your going, with that shift I had a live vid feed of the location room at home. One I had studied and memorised. Even then I was off twenty feet. Scared the hell out of Fernán and he made me promise never to try it again over that distance, but the sex that night, wow."
She takes up her now cold tea and with a smile asking.
"So any questions Mon-Capitan?
Annara calls you into her cabin and asks you to take a seat before starting.
"Vathan I have just come from a meeting with the Captain in witch we discuses what may be waiting for us on the other side of this next jump.
She has asked me to take on fully my role as the Diplomat Ambassador and more to the point as interpreter for the mission. I can't do both rolls. My specialist training is the very reason I was sent on all the missions we have been on Vathan, the Ambassador roll comes before any other. So saying that good old HQ set out a set of protocols for me to implement in a set of events like this. One being as 'The Ambassador' for our worlds on this mission, I am as of this moment handing over active command of this missions marines contingent to you Vathan. From this point on I will be under the direct command of the Capitan as the sole diplomatic corp contingent. You will be under her as the marine sole marines commander. I know you are more than capable of doing this roll. And to be honest Vathan the troops like and trust you much better than me. I can read there minds so I know, I am not joking when I say they would be willing to follow you into hell and back."
She smiled as if a great weight was off her back.
"Congratulations force Commander CWO Vathan The Captain will be having a mission briefing with you shortly. So any questions?"
After they talk more she takes him to the door, She offers her hand.
"I think it best you inform the troops of the change in command structure, if you need anything from me, you need only ask Vathan and best of luck. This could be a very dangerous undertaking we are about to embark on, I can think of no one better to be carrying the pointy stick."
I haven't forgotten your thing about the crew, just been too busy to type up 14 profiles. :) You can assume right now that you know all the crew, and are on friendly terms with all of them. What we'll do with that is, as an NPC comes into focus, I'll write up a profile for you that way I don't have to do all 14 at the same time.
You can also assume he has an idea of who will handle unusual things ok, and who will be problematic if the fecal matter hits the fan unexpectedly.
Annara takes Viktoria her [Viktorias] privet meeting room/cabin. She puts her tray down and takes a seat, she bows her head and rubs her temples with both hands, then looks up.
"We should have had this talk some time ago Viktoria, But I wanted to talk about this when the time came. Well this most definitely is the time."
She looks up at Viktoria a kind of resigned smile on her face.
"I feel positive I can Vicky. I have been practising for the last three years. It’s not a science you understand, each Psion is different, and each of us has limits and styles. I have been working with large animals, even sea living ones. I can get emotions, thoughts, flashes of feelings and ideas. The way the feel and think at that moment. I know what a bear thinks when it has lost sigh and smell of its cub. fear, hopelessness, anger, then it the cub is back, joy happiness, relief and anger at who took the cub. Did you know Horses can feel the temperature of the ground thought there hove's, Dolphins see in sound, its the most amazing feeling to 'feel' your way around the world"
She grins.
"I know Aggy would like to think it was our talk some years ago that chilled me out, but I feel it was as much my learning to see through the eyes of other beings. Not just intelligent ones like us, and let me tell you Dolphins are as sentient and self-aware as us if not more so. It’s just their experiencel-reality just has no models mathematics and the mechanical abstracts that we use to interpret ours. Their language is one of 'sound-sight' density and position; theirs is the equivalent of an oral tradition. Their history, that of the pod, shot lives by our scales of time. A wild tribe of Sea-Mammals, living in the jungles of sea weed. Leaning, feeling that, thinking as they do, in the moment, that’s what I think really changed me. Aggy helped of course"
She winks, and then looks down at the floor.
"I was tested at a very young age Vicky, they said I was one of the most powerful Psion's the academy has ever seen in years. With they added a near perfect range of talents, for what that's worth. I still can't bring myself to change my own body, a kind of Psion talent that me personally feel very uncountable to the point of never wanting to do it, but some are happy to.”
She then gets up and go's over to lock the door, all the while talking.
"As you train your talents it gets harder no easier you expand you see. Within the Academy we have recordings of Psion’s that can do extraordinary things."
She looks around the room then checks the recording and comm’s mickes are off.
"What I am about to show you must be kept between us, not even the corps knows I have developed this ability. I worked it out because we have been jumping so much. Each time we jumped I have pushed my mind into that moment, that forming of the singularity. My mind felt it, it… I'm sorry there are no words for any logical that I can express."
She I now stood in the middle of the cabin, arms by her sides she closes her eyes, she takes two deep breath. In an instant she moved. There is a slight sound of air rushing into a place and her clothing falls to the floor empty. While Aannra is now stood next to where she had been, now naked in the same position, she stands just now five feet to the left of where she had been. Aannra opened her eyes and looks at Vicky, a mischievous grin on her face.
"I can't tell you the number of secret nights off base me and Fernán have had because of this, but I'm not letting the high ups know what me and my husband get up to"
She giggles like a teen then puts her hand out, her underwear lifts off the floor and comes up to meet her hand, she stars to get dresses.
"I can move small things as well, Objects and clothing but only small, This I could do at the academy, my poor clothing can only travel the long way to where I go, so shift is nude only"
She grins at Vicky, Once dressed she takes a seat; she is now back to business.
"So in academy lingo, yes I can read minds, its one way at the moment, them to me but I am working on pushing my thoughts the other way, as yet I have been unable. Empathy to surface thought reading they class its range. Time wise, I can keep my concentration going for about a minuet at a push, with drugs say about 5 times a day tops, after that I get headaches so bad I can't think. I have a lite telekinetic power; there are some poison tipped darts back in the weapons locker. I have been trained to use with this ability but I very much hope I never have to. The one thing they don't know is that I can 'Shift' or as they put it ‘Teleport’. I don’t want them to as well. The longest shift I have ever done was planet side from the ISS and back. For that kind of range I have to have a very good idea of where I am going. This was simple, next to myself, but a big shifts like the ISS one is very risky. You have to know precisely where you’re going. I mean really know, that time I also has a live vid feed of the locations room at home and Cabin in the ISS. One’s I had studied and memorized. Even then I was off twenty feet going down. Scared the hell out of Fernán and he made me promise never to try it again over that distance, but the sex that night, wow."
She takes up her now cold tea and with a smile asking.
"So any questions Mon-Capitan?
As the talk she brings up Vathan and what she must do if the captain wanted her in the Translator Ambassador roll.
“Soon as I am done here I’ll have a meeting with him and inform him of our change of rolls. I think he will be OK with it, The Troops and crew like him and if have to be unarmed when and if we meet the locals, I want him calling the shots behind my back. I trust him to do his bast.”
"Well ... I honestly thought that any surprises would come from outside the ship ..."
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts - Imagine the things one could do with that!
"Alright. The fact that it works on non-human minds are reassuring. Let us hope that any aliens have discernible emotions."
"Letting Vathan take care of the Marines does seem like the best course of action. Even if you could handle both posts, perhaps having the Diplomat also be the chief of security can send mixed messages ..."
"Thank you, Commander." Vathan replies. Since you can read my mind, I assume you read my mind all the time. Thank you again, Commander. Good luck with the diplomacy gig.
His side of the conversation is his typical guarded small talk. Annara is the member of the crew who receives the lightest amount of his testing just more than the captain.
"And your wrong I can't read minds all the time, just when it's needed Vathan,"
She jokes, she did not need to read his mind some times to know what he was thinking.
"Also from now on its just plain Aannra or if needed formally "Ambassador " , and if this works out to be 1st contact,, I know darn well they we'll make that permanent. So it looks like my Marian days may be over and again to be honest I think it's for the best. I trained to be a diplomat from the start, I was made to sign up, you known. Bring in the upperclass to the war effort, they said, reality was the last four years I set behind a desk doing little more than helping HR, even had time to start a family."
She smiles,
"You where always much better soldier than I will ever be, I known I've seen the films"
She jokes.
"So you needed to read my mind just now, Ambassador. Good to know." He replies.
Then he thinks, I appreciate the compliment, but it is terribly intrusive to read people's minds without their permission.
He waits to be dismissed by his superior officer.
"would it shock you to know I did not need to, I know you so well I could take a good guess at it."
She jokes
"after all these years Valdan you should be able to read mine. As I said, you need any thing you just have to ask."
She then stnapes to atetion and salute him.
"Force Commander, you out rank me now, I'm now a cavilan, and good to, would have shot some poor fool knowing my aim."
And winks at him but you can tell she means it. She relaxes but says.
"look go see Vicky, she i know has some orders about the troops, she"s a bit stressed so go easy with the leg pulling, we could be walking into real cluster F#}## here and she will need a bit of hand holding if it's a shooting war. If it dos come to that, I'm probably going to be the poor fool with out a gun in the middle of it. So any thing comes my way with intent Valdan, you frag that F##%#. With prejudice I have my kids back home and I have every intention of seeing them again.
Aannra seem total serous for once, even after so many mellowing years.
Vathan returns the salute. You're still reading my mind. You're the commander, and I follow orders. And I won't call the captain, Vicky. After that, his thoughts begin to swirl as he tries not thinking about what he really thinks about her as a histrionic noble. Then, his thoughts transform into the trailer of his last movie.
"Thank you, Ambassador."
With that she shows him out, and the informs the Captain he has been told, so she can call him to the briefing as posted above.
Once that is done, she will down load the odd signals to her computer and study them.