The Long Night Ends (A Traveller T20 Game) (Inactive)

Game Master mdt

No worries. Vathan assumes that he's not the sharpest pencil in the box.

"We'll make as many trips as we have fuel, time and daylight to do. Unless we encounter more ... difficulties." Her voice is flat and emotionless, but it gains some semblance of life back as she continues. "Hopefully Annara has recovered a bit by the time we get back - and feel strong enough to communicate with only the six of them. We could probably get things running more smoothly then!"

Sorry all, last week was busy, I was sick, and this weekend wasn't much better. Plus with the looking at new people and bringing them in next week, I've been slow to update. My apologies.

Once the group indicates the 'multiple trips' message, the Mylthani park their vehicles to the side of the landing area, and board the ship.

On the other end, the Mylthani in the city arrive with almost identical vehicles, only dozens, and begin unloading food and power supplies.

No worries. I too have been a bit lazy. Could probably have nudged it a bit myself :)

Victoria steps out of the APC, taking a moment to merely stand and watch the Mylthani unload the supplies. It felt good to see something good finally come out of this, and the sight of them milling about gave some sort of physical token of that good deed. After a while however the scene lost its lustre and she turned her mind back to their task. Summoning up the rest of the crew she gave them a quick brief of her thoughts.

"We all know what happened - so let us focus on making sure it doesn't become a recurring theme. Our weapons are ill suited for such close quarter combat, our communication is poor - especially with our alien allies. We can't really fix the first until we come home, so let us focus on the second. My hope is that Lady Annara is well enough to accompany us on the further trips - and that a small group of Mylthani doesn't strain her mind too much. Secondly, I think that we should make use of the Mylthani's translation device and teach eachother a set of basic hand/paw signals for the most basic commands. Thoughts?"

Ceres crossed her arms and leaned against the side of the APC, indicating that any crewmember where free to speak their mind.

Vathan brooded about the death of his marine. He had nothing good to stay, so he kept quiet during the entire trip. It had been a long time, since he had lost someone in battle.

"Right, captain. Good call. Communication is key. We also need to understand as much information as possible about potential threats."

Vathan then coughs stifling his emotions, "we also need to get the body on ice down here. I would prefer him to be "buried" in space like a marine, but we need the cargo and time of the APC at the moment."

A new crew member moves up. Hello. Lieutenant(jg) Fendar Hig at your service. May I be of assistance?

He checks out what needs to be done and begins to help out.

Fendar is currently on a ship waiting out in the system, one of the stores ships. Vathan will need to request a replacement for our dead Marine, which will be Fendar. I'm thinking that they've established that there is nothing on the planet to harm the other ships at this point, so the Captain could send for them. I can advance us a bit if everyone is ok with that.

Holt does everything she can to not think about what has happened, to focus on being vigilant, on watching the Mylthani, anything other than brooding over her recent mistake.

Hearing the Captain's voice was a welcomed relief to it all. "Agreed. I haven't had the training, but I'm sure that the Marines have a hand signal code."

BTW: We may have lost Anarra again, she bowed out of another game we're both in. Finder has now transferred over from the cargo hauler's marine compliment.

The group returns and does some talk with the locals as they are unloading. It's revealed that the Mylthani were indeed asking if they were doing multiple trips, or just one.

Once the humans convey they are doing as many as reasonable, the Mylthani seem very happy. The reason they wanted to know before leaving was so they knew whether to park the machinery back in it's storage places and mothball it. Since the humans indicated at least one more trip, they left it on the landing area.

The captain orders a probe sent through to alert the rest of the fleet to come over and visit. That will take a month and change to arrive, and another month for them to get to the small planet.

In that time, the crew begins to learn more and more about the Mylthani.

The creatures don't really think the way the humans do. Or at least, not the way most humans do. The tale of the dead colony that the crew encountered is almost exactly as this world.

The Mylthani never developed flight for anything other than launching rockets. The atmosphere is too thin for anything other than gliders. Even the local 'birds' grow to a size where they can no longer fly (as Holt found, they get big enough they become hopping gliders).

The Mylthani who could not escape the cold got all their affairs in order, locked up houses, set equipment up for long term cold storage, and then went home to their families and waited for the end. Their planetary mental network telling them as their species died off.

The Mylthani who are left are considered the 'insane' ones. Those who could live for extended periods without the planetary mental network, or for short periods with no network. For all their recorded history those who could were used as scouts and for dangerous work.

The Mylthani were, however, a very practical species. They had planned against every disaster they could think of. Each of their Survival Cities (there were 16 of them, the Mylthani use base 16, given they have 8 fingers, and 16 toes, but only count on the two 'hand' arms and the front two 'claw' legs, so 16. Which actually makes it fairly easy to convert to their system for the tech heads, who are used to hexidecimal) is equipped with spare parts, supplies, and over 65,000 fertilized embryos from a wide array of genetic types. Additionally, they have an additional 65,000 ovum and enough raw genetic sperm to build additional embryos as needed, with genetic mods if necessary.

What they hadn't planned on was the entire planet becoming uninhabitable due to cold from a volcano eruption. So they burned through their supplies much faster than they had forecasted. And without any way to get to the other Survival Cities to get the supplies (ground vehicles can't get there anymore, thanks to the extreme cold), they had no way to continue on.

The humans spend a couple of months ferrying supplies from the survival cities to the surviving city, and the Mylthani have sufficient supplies to last another year. However, they would like to send some of their population and genetic material off planet, as a safeguard.

All the ships are now in orbit, and you can ask questions about the Mylthani and their tech if you like. They are able to telepathically communicate with their computers, and augment the computers with their hive mind, as basically an organic supercomputer plugin. When the whole planet was one mind, they could compute massive amounts of data as background. The Mylthani's medical and computer tech is significantly in advance of the Human's tech. Their military, space, aeronautics, and sensor tech, however, is significantly behind. Basically, they are TL 10 (with some TL 11 breakthroughs) for medical or electronics/computers, and TL 7 for most everything else (or even TL 4 for some things, like Aeronautics). They find human computers and electronics 'quaint', although the mental tone, per Annarra, is the same tone a physicist would have for a young schoolkids planetary system model.

After the first supply run

Ceres gives the black bag stuffed into the APC a sad look. "Indeed. The ambient temperature out here should suffice for a while. I'll have Annara instruct the locals to not touch him. I have to check his will if he wanted a spaceborn burial or would prefer to be brought home..." With a hint of bitterness she adds "I'll make sure we bring back the corpses of the critters on the last run for today. The Doctor will have to work day and night cutting them apart until we know an efficient way to kill these bastards."

Transfer, a day after the fleet arrives

The Captain nods a greeting to the new Marine while eyeing is letter of transfer and introduction. It was a brief and informal story, mainly for procedure and show, and she had already looked it over twice. But it gave her an excellent excuse to keep him waiting, to get a moment to silently observe him. Judge his character if you will. He seemed eager - no doubt a side effect of being stuck with the reserve fleet so long. Could also be the fact that we are orbiting an alien word with real aliens! She smiled to herself, still not used to the fact. Still carrying her smile she looked up from the letter. And up still, since the marine was actually taller then her. It was times like these she wished that she still had her uniform - but it didn't really matter, she could rely on an practised Air of Command instead.

"Eager to get to work I see? Well, you are in luck ... Another expedition planetside is scheduled to launch in a few hours. Report to Ensign Holt - she will be leading the expedition. It wouldn't hurt if you introduced yourself to the other Marines too. And say 'hi' to the Mylthani for me! Unless you have further questions - dismissed."

I think I got the ranks right

About a month after the arrival of the reserve fleet, current time

Ceres sat sipping coffe in her compartment, looking over the logs. It was a luxury she could only afford herself once each daylight cycle these days. Their supplies were dwindling, and if they stayed much longer they would have to rush their way home. She uttered a silent prayer that they wouldn't have any trouble. But the Mylthani had been supplied long enough to survive their absence.

All well so far...

With a sigh she stood up and put away the logs. It was finally time to leave. Or make preparations, at the very least. She had scheduled a meeting with the rest of the crew in half an hour - but she had nothing more to do at the moment and headed there early.

Question - how dissimilar is Mylthani food compared to ours? Could we resupply at least passable food?

Question - what did the will of the dead marine say?

Question - The genetic material, do the Mylthani have the appropriate storage and containment vessels for them to make the trip?

Question - I know we discussed this earlier and you mentioned a concrete number, but how many (and how much to they eat/space do they use) Mylthani do we need?

Question - Could be bring some Mylthani scripture/data with us? (like their Wikipedia! An epic cultural artefact to have access to!)

Question - is their medical/computer tech compatible with ours? Could we bring some/upgrade some of ours?

Question - Does the Doctor figure out a way to kill the wildlife? Or do we have to settle for the satisfaction of knowing them slowly freeze to death

Fendar helps out wherever he can, although he hopes everyone realizes he is Navy and not a Marine.

He follows whatever sort of protocol others follow as far as weapons - keeping a sidearm or laser carbine with him if the others do.

Hmm - that is right! Sorry, was just on the Marine-track :)

No still here just, losing time moving stuff to new job but now I have few down times. 2 more weeks of madness then free again.

Annara is is very saddened by the news when the team gets back, but meets them with a grim look. After a meeting with with them she says

"Ill let the locals know what you want Viktora and get on that info you need"

She go's on to start talking with the locals to get the info asked for.

Over the next few mouths she works hard with the Mylthani to get to understand them and not be crushed under their mental network. Passing on info as and when she gets it. She is most interested in there technology to telepathically communicate with their computers, and augment the computers with their hive mind, she wants to see the way they made and use an organic supercomputer plugin. As a means to compute massive amounts of data as background. Also collect all the Mylthani's medical and computer tech info that is significantly in advance of the Human's tech.

She has a lot of meetings with the team telling them about this and what it could mean to there home world.

"If we could copy just a fraction of this we could be years in advance of any race we meet. Ships flown by thought, Intuitive weapons systems. A whole new type of AI, of a power never seen before. This race may have something that could give us a tactical advantage why beyond any other we have ever seen before. I have an idea, for a Bio craft, linked to a psionic pilot that would like nothing seen before. I can't explain just how priceless this race is to us right now. This could mean a massive leap ahead."

She has a fill debrief with Vathan, She dos not place blame him for any of the events. He did it by the book and just as she would have done. Given the orders clearly. Halt Failed to follow orders and acted on her on initiative, She prioritised the natives. That was not her mistake, NOT informing Vathan she was doing this was. He is in command she should have informed him of all actions. When it comes to the matter of punishment, its up to him to decide what should be done with Halt. If he asks she will say, that an Enquiry be set up once back on the home world. Right now they had other things to do. She will also place herself under Vathan, as a replacement for Halt on all other runs.

Question - how dissimilar is Mylthani food compared to ours? Could we resupply at least passable food?

If you remember, their planet has the opposite type of amino acids as Earth (and most planets), meaning nothing you have will work for them except water. The Mylthani do, however, have some ability to grow food they can eat from genetically engineered plants. The equivalent of seaweed and mushrooms for fiber and protein. The only problem is it won't grow in sub-freezing temperatures, and the energy cost of keeping tanks of liquid water above freezing large enough to feed them was more than they could supply previously. With the additional nuclear piles you have helped them stock pile, they can keep their power plants going at full power and actually grow food now. If you take any with you, they can also grow food when they get somewhere if they can get a large enough tank of base nutrients.

Question - what did the will of the dead marine say?

If his body was in one piece, and it didn't put anyone in jeopardy, he wanted it sent to his family. Doctor Ziirkaa says he can reattach the head for a funeral, as long as a full dress uniform is used with the collar turned up and it won't be noticeable. If his body was too damaged, space burial was acceptable.

Question - The genetic material, do the Mylthani have the appropriate storage and containment vessels for them to make the trip?

The Mylthani use an odd mixture of organic and technological technology for that. It's almost like a cybernetic genetic vessel. Each one is about the size of a Mylthani and can survive for decades. This is, however, one of the reasons they were having food issues, raw material to feed the storage system. But yes, they are quite resilient.

Question - I know we discussed this earlier and you mentioned a concrete number, but how many (and how much to they eat/space do they use) Mylthani do we need?

There are about 1200 Mylthani left. Each Mylthani uses 1/8th the life support of a human with regards to air/recycled water. Each one requires about 1/6th the amount of food a human does. So basically, the amount of storage space it requires for a Mylthani to live on a ship means you can replace 1 human crew with 6-8 Mylthani and not strain the ship's systems.

Question - Could be bring some Mylthani scripture/data with us? (like their Wikipedia! An epic cultural artefact to have access to!)

The Mylthani are willing to build an interface to your computer systems (they find the APC computer hopelessly quaint, but the higher TL systems of your main ship are much easier to work with for them) so that they can transfer that information. They are very big on sharing information. They would also like to copy your information as well.

Question - is their medical/computer tech compatible with ours? Could we bring some/upgrade some of ours?

They can build interfaces to it. And they can supplement your medical people. They are still learning human medicine, although giving them copies of all the medical texts Ziirkaa can get his hands on would speed things up. Their techs could upgrade your older tech ships, given enough raw materials and time. The Mylthani offer to use some of the stockpiled materials on their planet to upgrade your ships, but you'll have to bring in several cargo ships just to haul the raw materials up.

Question - Does the Doctor figure out a way to kill the wildlife? Or do we have to settle for the satisfaction of knowing them slowly freeze to death

All the fish will survive by diving deeper, the gravitational tides will keep oxygen in the water. About a 1/3rd of the animals will survive, per the Mylthani. The Mylthani have enough raw genetic material to repopulate the planet's other species, when the ice recedes. They think that should happen in about 2800 years standard. They plan on repopulating the species at that time, if their own species has survived. As for the nasty stuff that has survived so far, Ziirkaa says putting bullets through it is the best way to kill it. Or using fire, it doesn't react well to fire, so lasers will work well.

On a side note, the Mylthani indicate they could modify their offspring to survive on the colony world, given it would have a domed city and plenty of power/raw materials. It would even allow them to do some limited terraforming and bringing some of their planet's animals around for food supplies, if the humans would allow it. That might work out well as Telthani have been somewhat reluctant to move to it due to what happened to the last colony.

Annara works with doctor to find 2 critical bits of information

1: Have the Mylthani developed or now how to make longevity drugs like buster spice?

2: Have they found a means to awaken or expand permanently the Psionic capacity of an individual?

No, the Mylthani never needed such things. They had well balanced approach to population growth. And with no where to go, they didn't have space for people to live extended lives, so there was never any impetus to develop it.

They can train people who are psionic, that's natural, but only with telepathy. They don't have any other psionic abilities. The idea that humans do is a surprise to them. They can repair most broken Mylthani who either are born without or who lose their abilities through accident, but inducing it in other species is something they'd have to research for a long time. Annarra could absolutely get training in telepathy from them however.

She will take training with them GM, it would be what she would like to see and known so she can pass on the information. She will also see of any of them can be trained in other forms of Psionics

Nope, they are telepaths only. No affinity for anything else

Ceres, I’m a Lieutenant, (JG). Unless I’ve since been demoted. : /

Also, geez you guys post a lot when I’m asleep.

Not sure if that could happen, since it would technically be Ceres’ call and Holt isn’t under Vathan or Annara’s command, but if Annara suggests it and Ceres goes for it, then there it is.

No, sorry I was a bit scatter-brained when I wrote that, trying to fit as many of my thoughts as I could at the same time. And it said 'Ensign' in your status bar :P

On that topic, I tried to think of Vathans rank but I couldn't recall it so I just gave up^^

I am fairly certain we would run a rotation of people planetside, so that we could get as much work done as possible. Some working/studying in the Mylthani city and some running the APC errands. There isn't an abundance of work to be done in orbit, so I'm sure everyone gets plenty of opportunity to visit that ice-ball :)

Giving them 'our' old colony does seem like a good pick. However, the 'modify our offspring to survive' gives me some bad vibes. The current adult Mylthani can't live on that world? (was it the gravity?)

And what does their life cycle look like anyhow?

I just noticed that. Sorry! It should be fixed now!.

Still suffering whiplash from the time jump

Vathan filed the incident report when they had returned to orbit and had stuck to the facts. Holt was a good officer just green on ground missions. He had decided that her career would not be jeopardized by any of his actions. While he believed that she had the lionshare of blame for the death, he had not excused himself or the chance of combat. People can die loading a ship, so there are no absolutes. Besides, they had not been in harm's way this whole voyage. Maybe the crew thought it was a vacation tour? He didn't know or truly believed that.

He made an effort to spend time with Montenegro outside of duty. He had encouraged her to ensure her incident report stuck to the facts, too. He didn't want a court martial out here and would retire if it came to that he supposed.

He brooded over the marine's death until a few days after the funeral when he visited Holt alone in her cabin. Besides pleasantries, he didn't want to talk but just share a bottle of 18 year old whiskey that he had squirreled away in his luggage. They got drunk. Afterward, Vathan was over the death and back to his old self.

Vathan managed the ground missions. He declined Annara's offer to rejoin his Security crew and suggested to the captain that Fendar Hig join Security. With a wry smile, he told Annara to do her job as Ambassador. They had met aliens who needed managing and translating. She didn't need to concern herself with Security issues.

Giving them 'our' old colony does seem like a good pick. However, the 'modify our offspring to survive' gives me some bad vibes. The current adult Mylthani can't live on that world? (was it the gravity?)

Correct, it's the equivalent of 2+G's for them (they are on a .35G planet, it's a 0.79G planet). It would be like a 105lb human walking around weighing 230lbs, they'd have broken bones, heart issues, etc

And what does their life cycle look like anyhow?

As near as Ziirkaa can figure it, complicated. The entire species rarely does natural birth anymore. They use artificial wombs to gestate the offspring (usually 2 to 4), and usually after tweaking the parents DNA to make sure it's more compatible with each other. Gestation time can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months, depending on how developed the parents want the offspring. Birth development ranges from 'Newborn' to 'Young Adult', although most tend to choose 'Mobile' as the starting Birth development. Because of the Hive Mind, the offspring can rapidly develop personality and learned behavior, even in utro. Ziirkaa estimates that they could, if they wanted to, repopulate the entire lost colony dome city in a few years if they wanted to, with a complete adult workforce.

You said that it would take time to retrofit the ships with new tech, but what about the APC and the other shuttles? The work could be done on planet, so no transfer of resources would be necessary, and it would give us techies a good head start on figuring out how to incorporate the designs into our ships.

Yes, they can upgrade the electronics on the APC. Your shuttles are pre-Night, so they are all TL 10 already. I had forgotten that. There are some tweaks they can make to the TL10 ships, but they are basically TL10 at the cusp of TL11 with regards to computers. But the APC was what they were experiencing and wondering how you got to the stars in that. :) What they can do is show you how to upgrade your Telthani computer infrastructure to TL11 on your TL8 Tech Base, which will make Telthani's boostrapping itself up to TL11 again much easier.

They keep using the word ‘colony’. Is that just a generic term for a living space, or does it imply that they are not native to this world?

Nope, they are native to here. They call it your colony because that's what it is. Anything not this planet will be a colony to them.

If they are TL 7 when it comes to power generation, then would it be possible to help advance them that way so they could last longer?

If you had gotten here about 5 years sooner, then yeah, but now, they don't have the infrastructure to rebuild their power plants.

Of course Holt would be perfectly happy to help them build any kind of interfaces, or to create an understand of each other technology. She would especially like to try and figure some way to be able to exchange raw calculations of theirs to ours, basically try to translate their math system. It would make the engineering go a whole lot easier.

They can interface rather easily to your systems once they can spend some time with the APC upgrading it's systems. By the time they are done with it (will take about two weeks), it's computer system is advanced as the main ships. Grants a +2 to pilot, after the driver spends two weeks at a -2 unlearning all the stuff they learned about before. As to raw calculations, once they can build an interface, you can download a math and physics primer to them, and they'll be using your units instead, for your ease. By the end of the sixth month, they are using your language already, both as a group and individuals

She will take training with them GM, it would be what she would like to see and known so she can pass on the information. She will also see of any of them can be trained in other forms of Psionics

Not sure if I fully answered this earlier. But yes you can train with them, and such training is full justification for feats or raising your skills with Telepathy

LT Hig will keep busy flying shuttles, keeping equipment working and hoping to learn the odd thing or two about the alien tech.

Holt wrote:

If they are TL 7 when it comes to power generation, then would it be possible to help advance them that way so they could last longer?

If you had gotten here about 5 years sooner, then yeah, but now, they don't have the infrastructure to rebuild their power plants.

What about our fueling freighter? If we shuttled the tanks down to the surface, and then pulled the engine from it to turn into a generator for them. Would it give us more time to shuttle more of them to our new habitat for them? Or would it give them time to advance their own colonies?

They've got about two years of fuel now, with six months of gathering supplies. Especially if you take some of the population with you.

Meeting/Brief

The time to leave the Mylthani homeworld was rapidly coming closer. In preparation, the Captain had called a rare meeting with the entire crew. Since space was a precious commodity on board a spaceship (oh the irony!) the only room large enough to somewhat comfortably accommodate everyone was the large supply storage. It was looking rather empty at the moment - only a scattered few boxes stowed away in the corner. A large but temporary table was set up in the middle, constructed out of stacked supply boxes. The chairs where of similar nature. Upon the table were a rare sight these days - a few pots of freshly brewed tea and coffee.

When every one has arrived and are 'seated', Victora nods in greeting.

"Welcome. Glad you could make it! *Ahm* As you know, our time here is coming to an end. While we haven't seen home for a long time - we must strive to make sure others also have a chance for something to call home. I speak, of course, of our hosts - the Mythani. However, a Captain must also look to the consequences of her actions. Political as well as material. Live psychic aliens present opprunities for both. I've decide that we shall ..."

Quick headcount - take Mythani with us: Yay or Nay?

Yay calls out the young LT.

"... honour the Mylthani's request and find them a new world. While there are certainly risks, we simply *can't* leave an entire race to die. We have ran a few cases together with their scientists already - and it seems as if the habitable worlds we have in our small database are all unsuitable for the current population. Their adaptation to low gravity would cause significant medical trouble for them if introduced to heavier gravity."

"But we have a window to find a habitable world for them. Our efforts to gather supplies for the Mylthani has given them a slightly longer lifeline."

"And still, there is the idea of an artificial habitat. The Telthani station could serve - but I am uncertain if the Navy would give it up."

"Nevertheless, first we need to bring news of this development home. And bringing with us Mylthani ambassadors as well as scientists should help make the news as favourable as possible!"

"Annara - the Mylthani will have to make their case to our leaders. It would probably be best for them if you prepared them a bit for the political climate back home. Vathan - you probably know the best of any of us how to adjust to the spotlight. Hopefully that insight is somewhat applicable to what the Mylthani will experience back home. Besides, if someone tries something funny, I'd like you to be around them."

"For the journey home - so that the Mylthani arrives in one piece - we will need to make certain adjustments. Both to the living areas for their convenience and to the mess hall. But more importantly - the gravity will need to be adjusted. In the ideal case, we would have different strength of the gravity field in different parts of the ship to prevent bone atrophy among ourselves. Holt and Hig, see if you can fix that!"

Feel free to interject ideas and thoughts IC or OOC.

The job descriptions/orders are merely superficial, perhaps a little hook if you want to rp/try something :)

My current line of thought is that we only bring back a smaller number of Mylthani to act as ambassadors. Hopefully we can either let them live on the Telthani station, or salvage/build a new one on the colony world. Or simply find a proper world for them. However, until we know their destination it feels unnecessary to haul children or embryos.

Well, Fendar will help out wherever he can. He is only a lowly LT in the Navy, however, and knows the bureaucracy won't pay any attention to him.

Holt nods at Ceres and replies ”I’ve got some experience with localized anti-grav systems, so as long as we have the materials I should be able to isolate the effects to portions of the ship. The transition can be a little… jarring though, so either we need to warn the crew about it or I can see about setting up some kind of ‘grav air-lock’ thing in a connection hallway… Hmm, this will be interesting… I’ll grab a crew and get started.”

Of course, no one had to live or work in them… and I had effectively unlimited power… but we’ll figure something out…

Fendar volunteers to help work out the engineering changes to modify the gravity. He grabs his tool kit and talks it over with Ophelia's team.

Well, Mam Hig says with a smile I joined the Navy for adventure, and this seemed like a good way to go to have a little fun. Plus, not much left at home for me - Mum and Dad have passed, and Sis is busy with her life in college. He shrugs Plus I thought I would always like to test myself - to see if I have what it takes to head out into be big black open space and face the risks

Feel free to continue conversations in spoilers, just want to keep the game moving along, get the new guy feeling more knowledgeable, that sort of thing. Wall of Text incoming...

The crew loads up two dozen Mylthani (the Mylthani insist they need at least this many to care for the embryo creatures, and the food). They have worked out a fungus that can consume and process Human food, and turn it into something that, while not appetizing, can be eaten by the Mylthani.

Doctor Ziirkaa continues to be astonished at the level of sophistication the Mylthani show with regards to medicine. Their healers are voracious consumers of knowledge, and they are already able to diagnose human illnesses, and suggest the best treatments. They are even able to treat humans for everyday things like sprains, pulled muscles, burns, and other shipboard issues.

Their techs have managed to squeeze some efficiency out of the main computer, as well as build new interfaces for them to use to talk to the crew and the computers.

Their linguist, a new thing to them, has begun mastering basic language for the humans. The hive mind seems to work as a gestalt, allowing them to pick up new skills rapidly. Already the techs are studying the ship's engines and driving the crew somewhat batty with questions.

Holt and Hig and their crew is able to reset the cargo hold's gravity to .33, just about perfect for the Mylthani, and sufficient such that the crew doesn't have to worry about bone loss for those who spend a lot of time on that deck.

--------------------------------

The ships, low on supplies but high on information, travel back to the warp jump that leads home. They take their time, ensuring they haven't been followed, and then jump home, leaving the probes they sent out behind, on standby, for when they return.

Upon returning, the Captain follows protocol, giving the new information about the Mylthani to Command, and letting them talk to the council.

Needless to say, there is an uproar in the council over the aliens. However, the death of their sister colony has left the entire planet with a hard and deep sense of guilt. The council itself, while upset about the sudden arrival without warning, only briefly considers turning the aliens away. One of the councilors openly says he won't be part of another planetary suicide.

The counsilors, who had been bickering and chewing out Ceres break off, and then after a few minutes of pregnant silence, the most vocal opponent sighs, and then nods. She agrees that they can't do that, and then the council moves on to how to announce it to the planet as a whole.

The idea of giving the aliens the dead colony causes some more discussion, and then they move on to logistics. Exactly what they'll do is not hammered out, other than giving over Delta Quadrant on the station to the aliens. Delta's repairs were nearing completion anyway, and it's gravity net can be most easily reset. The entire population could be accommodated there, as the Delta quadrant was originally designed to hold up to 500 humans (more than sufficient for 1200ish Mylthani).

The ship yards have been busy, and the first locally built ships have been put into service. The ships are large and bulky, but they can fly, and they have weapons and armor. The christening of the first two cruisers and destroyers was completed only a few weeks before the McTavish returned. With them complete, the Navy can free up another another two ships for the Exploratory fleet, giving them much more resources. The two ships are the Morning Ascendant, one of the freighters left behind in the Colony system that has been repaired and restored, and the other is the Resplendent Commerce. This was the large cargo ship that was in the Telthani system that had been heavily damaged by the solar flare storm. It's been restored, and it alone triples the storage capacity the small fleet had before the addition of the two ships.

The crew has 2 weeks of down time, to visit relatives and do anything they want to do in system, before they go back out.

Ziirkaa is removed to head up the Mylthani contingent.

Many of the crew gain promotions.

- Vathan is given a commission and becomes an officer.
- Ceres receives a promotion
- Holt receives a promotion as well

Sorry Hig, just joined, so no promotion for you.

Out of curiosity - does any of the Mylthani seem to suffer from translation sickness? It would give Ceres something to bond over with that alien :)

Standing infront of the Council didn't faze Victoria today. For one, she was in uniform again. It truly drove home the point that she was once again home, even more then seeing her native soil again. And for the other, she had faced bloodthirsty aliens just a few months earlier. But lastly and most importantly, most of them seemed to agree with her. She had feared that some might argue to deport or leave the Mylthani to their fate, but luckily that wasn't the case.

With her two weeks of shore leave, she spent the first almost exclusively with her family and friends at a spa. It was nice to simply relax and not think or worry about a thing. So niiiiiiiiice ...

Two of the Mylthani suffer translation sickness. You probably won't have much to bond over though, as while humans get sick at the stomach for awhile, Mylthani seem to develop blinding headaches and light sensitivity for a day or so after translation. Needless to say, the two are miserable for the duration of the trip.

Naww poor things. Victoria merely snacks down a couple of motion sickness pills and praise her lucky star she is a human, not a Mylthani!

Fendar Hig spends as much time learning about the tech provided by the aliens as he can. He knows it will come in handy somewhere.

If he does get shore leave (and he fully expects to be officer of the deck while the rest of the crew is gone - he really didn't get involved in any heavy stuff on the trip) he will visit his sister and hit a few bars, before stocking up on books and heading back to ship board quarters early.

On the ride back, when she isn’t tweaking the anti-grav systems, Holt spends a lot of time throwing herself into her work, polishing and writing up several research articles on the Mylthani computer and engineering techniques and how they can be adapted for traditional human methodologies.

When they finally dock, however, she is concerned. She has no idea how the brass are going to react to Vathan and Annara’s reports, not to mention dealing with the marines family. But much to her surprise it seems as if the whole situation is mostly glossed over, the concept of housing an alien species seeming much more important.

The usual parade of cameras and media attention are brought to bear, and several of the crew are given promotions. A grand spectacle is made of them, some portraying them as heroes, others as bringing the doom of the planet.

Holt has trouble feeling like a hero though. Overall, what they did as a unit, was definitely a major accomplishment. She just felt that her individual contribution was quite lacking, and deserving of little praise.

The first couple of days were spent submitting her papers to the University for emergency review. She then left for home, enjoying spending time with her friends aging parents. It surprised her how much her home had taken to the military. Country folk always seemed to be ready to defend their land, but it was also apparent that her own celebrity had something to do with it as well. Holt’s opinion on this was conflicted.

several days before they were due back she returned to the University to present her findings and finalize some plans for continued research. Shortly thereafter she returned to the space station to spend time getting her ‘hands dirty’, so to speak, and assisting with the construction of a new ship, one that she had submitted some module designs for before their last mission.

I'll try to get your new ships spec'd up today, and get you all back on the move. I suggest you spend the day or so deciding where to go next, you have a couple of options.

Vathan appreciates the commission and thanks Annara for the support. Maybe sharing a meal if the baroness has time in her agenda. He spends the beginning and end of the two week shore leave with starlets enjoying his celebrity. For a week in the middle, he drops off the grid going home to hunt with his family. He enjoys the peace, solitude, and expanse of the horizon and nature. The ship feels like living in a tin can. And the two planets that he visited were not terribly hospitable.

Vathan requests a promotion and a decoration for valor in combat for Montenegro.

How many months has it been since our last deployment? So we can calculate accumulated wealth. Cheers

You were out for about a year (11 1/2 months), plus 2 weeks of R&R, so 12 months total.

The McTavish and the Resplendent, after spending two weeks getting overhauled and ready for the trip, resume their explorations. The Folly is tucked in neatly in the landing bays of the Resplendent.

The group returns to their planned next warp point.

A group of four probes is sent through, and 8 hours later one reappears with a squirt of data.

The system on the other side is an F3 star, a yellow white star, small and extremely hot and bright.

Nothing is picked up on the probes sensors.

Holt was off duty, working on some plans of her own down in engineering, where the hum of the engines helped her concentrate, when the probe data came back. Checking the data from one of the consoles, she was a bit disappointed to find the system empty.

I guess it isn't surprising to see so many empty and lifeless systems. But I still find myself hoping for some sign of the rest of humanity. How long will it be before we rejoin our ancient brethren?

Gathering up her plans and notebooks, she heads up to the command deck to see what is to happen next.