"Personally I don't think they have a clue what to do here, they have fallen back on 1000 year old civil laws because they just don't have any interstellar diplomatic ones. The show trial the will be sending us Guilty onto is for public consumption only, that is what I fear, the young gun they just sent to us was more concerned with how HE would look than us. Out guilt was a done deal. There is a rule in any political system. the higher you go the fewer there are, this is now a have mind culture, they are a mass communication culture and who ever controls the lines of communication and the presentation, it will be they who hold the rains of power in this culture. Mass media controllers, can't you see it, they have cultivated an culture of mistrust in a outside body called the Comm-mee group who now one has seen for a 1000 years. That level of Xenophobia means tight control over dissemination of information. From what little i know of cultural history's and I had nothing but time to go over the data banks in our fun ride here. The scout service database is priority wide with systems governance outlines and brake downs. This culture is now in a state of shock and unrest, 1st contact in over a 1000s years, the chatter on the net will be content, the fall back to law predictable. I product the groups will fall into, Isolationists, exploransts, expansionist. Some will want the door closed, some will want to know more about the big outside and some will want to push out and grow. The 1st and 3ed are bad, the middle road best. We do have two cards we can play, one, jump drives, we make them and know how to use them, they seem not to. The Brotherhood, an enemy that we have evidence of will view this culture just as it views ours. Something unfaithful that needs to be converted. We should be talking right now with representatives of this system about both. Not locked in a cell facing a kangaroo court. Well that is just about all I have to say on the matter, I did not mean to upset that young man, but his manner and dammina lead me to think he was not take this at all seriously and was more interested in how he would look on net feed camera than how we did."
Aramis nods at Cat's and Ynja's comments and replies, "Again Ynja, I agree with much of your speculation. However, we have zero leverage here at the moment. We are not in position to dictate terms. The results of this trial have consequences for everyone, so we must go along until the cavalry arrives."
"leverage, we do have leverage, as I just pointed out and there is a big difference between dictate terms and Negotiate terms, if your happy to roll over and show you belly then fine. But right now we are in a band and being set up for a fall, if outside held comes it best be good."
"Then, I missed what you were saying. What leverage do we have?" Aramis replies.
The woman snorts. "We don't do truth drugs. While on the stand, you'll be under a Verifier. You can refuse to testify, you have that right."
She goes over basic rights, which is basically right not to self incriminate, right to a speedy trial, right to a single appeal, right to request a new Advocate, right to health care, right to a safe place to live, and right to nutritious food (although she does comment about nutritious not being the same as tasting good).
------------------------------------------------------------
Two days later, a severe looking woman in a fancy teal dress meets them in the same conference room. "I am Dame Edna Sage-McIntyre. As your new advocate, I advise you to disable the cyborgs vocal circuits as soon as possible. It may keep your head out of the noose. While I am certainly a capable advocate, you have already cost yourselves the services of one of the top five advocates in the system. If you wish to be stupid, you may, of course. However, I am not going to put up with foolishness." Her tone of voice seems to indicate that 'foolishness' is approximately the same as 'rat feces'. "Now then, I've gone over your case with your previous advocate. If I could, I would disjoin your cases, and try each of you separately, as I could likely more easily get two of you off by sacrificing the third." Her tone of voice seems to indicate Aramis would be the sacrifice, although from the way she stares pointedly at Ynja, it's obvious she'd rather toss the cyborg to the wolves. "Now then, my understanding is you wish to have access to a diplomat. That will not happen. You are not diplomats, you are spies. A diplomat presents their credentials to the government upon entry to the system. So anymore foolishness about diplomatic access or diplomatic immunity will only prejudice your case. If you wish to pursue such a foolish line of defense, that is your option, but you'll do so without me, I have no intention of being a laughingstock because you're too stupid to follow your advocate's advice." She give Ynja a pointed, cold stare. "Now, if you will designate one of your crew to retrieve your logs for you, you can access them and redact whatever you wish before I present them to the Court. I have the information to be used against you, we will review it, if there are is no further foolishness you wish to get out of your systems."
The prosecution's case basically is a complete timeline of Ynja & Cat's time in system. It picks up about a minute before their ship enters the system. The records are remarkably detailed, getting her ship's mass within a few hundred kilos. It then tracks the ship as it moves through the system, and even picks up the probes she launches (although it appears they didn't notice the initial probes sent through before Ynja and Cat).
Tactical data is displayed, and shortly afterward some distant visuals that look like they were taken by a telescope of some kind. Readouts on her power levels are very detailed, as are the details on the probes.
Finally, as the in-system fleet nears, and it becomes obvious that Ynja's ship can't escape the system without engaging (the sensor readings actually track her ship, potential trajectories, and whether she can get to the planet or jump point without engaging, and a few hours after all go red, Ynja contacts the fleet), the replays of the comm transfers is done.
A detailed tactical readout on Ynja's ship's weapons and defenses pops up as well, when the fleet scans her ship. Her threat rating is rather low, at least according to the tactical display.
A recording of every interaction, by Ynja & Cat or Aramis, is included in the briefing, no matter how small or incidental, if it occurred on the Nutejas ships.
"The case is pretty tight, no question about the laws being broken from a technical standpoint. At this point, we have to convince the Judician that your intentions were peaceful. That will be a lot easier if the cyborg keeps her mouth shut, or if you disable her speech circuits."
She looks hard at him a moment
"knowledge of Jump drive technology, knowledge of the Faithful an enemy coming their way."
Aramis frowns and replies, "they have our ships. The only way to prevent them from re-engineering the jump drives is to sacrifice our lives. I don't see that as leverage. As to the Faithful, honestly they appear to want a fight. If the Faithful arrive in this system, the natives will cook them in celebration. Any other ideas?"
Aramis looks at Ynja and says to the new advocate, "I don't think deactivating her vocal circuits will be necessary. I believe that she can be silent while you are here. We will discuss the situation after you depart."
Then, after a pause, he says, "Are you suggesting that one of us cannot redact the files ourselves? And tell us more about your strategy to disjoin the cases."
"No, you misunderstood. I said, you need to elect one of your crew to retrieve whatever files you wish to use, then that crew member will bring you the files to redact as you see fit. It must be someone without command codes, the military types are concerned someone with command authority might set a self destruct."
"I see. Then, the crew member will need to bring a portable device from our ship and not just a data file. As per our previous advocate, I understand that your culture assumes everyone spies, so I must assume that you will spy on the raw log file before redaction if I use one of your devices, right?"
The woman shrugs. "We assume that humans are humans, and can't resist their baser natures. I don't know that I'd agree that everyone spies. Different people have different experiences, based on their life experiences. Generally, I am usually in family court case pools, not corporate law, like your previous Advocate. However, I don't think that will be an issue."
says nothing unless ordered to by her captain.
Justice is, at least, swift here. The non-command crew has their day in court a week later, as a group. It's an interesting process, where the Prosecutor lays out the proof the crime was committed, the Advocate tries to have as much evidence thrown out as possible, and then the Judician makes a decision. The Judician asks a few questions, mostly related to ranks, organization structure, and the crew members answer as best they can without violating their oaths.
In the end, the Judician passes judgement, finding the entire lot guilty. The entire trial takes less than 4 hours. Then it immediately moves to the sentencing phase.
Here, the Prosecutor pleads the case for the harshest punishment he feels he can reasonably get, in this case, he pleads for 6 months of prison time for the non-command officers, and time served for the enlisted crew, along with fines to the government controlling the ships that total anywhere from 50,000 bucks to 1,000,000 bucks, based on rank.
The Advocate argues that they had nothing to do with decisions, and they didn't have any control over their orders. The Judician asks some questions, and finally retires for the night.
Two days later, the Judician renders a verdict. All the crew but the officers are sentenced to time served, and their government fined $10,000 bucks per. The officers (other than Ynja, Cat, and Aramis) are sentenced to time served, and their government fined $50,000 bucks apiece.
"Did the officers get e hersher penelty just beceuse they were officers? I'd like the record to show thet I heven't been promoted to thet yet ..."
"End the crew merely got hit with eiding 'espionege' correct? How much upscele ere we looking et? End how much is your locel currency, in spending power? Is $50000 e lot? I still heven't peid off my ship ..."
The advocate raises an eyebrow. "You can buy a decent sports car for $50,000. Yes, they were only charged with aiding, as they didn't participate in the espionage directly. You two did, and your captain by virtue of ordering you in to spy. As to how much of an increase in punishment, the potential is the difference between 10 years in jail and the death sentence, as an upper limit. How much are we likely to see? I would hope at most prison sentences and severe financial penalties."
"E sports cer?" Cath looks thoughtful, and a bit confused. She tries some mental gymnastics to try and figure out exactly what a sports car would cost - being a belter it wasn't something she ever thought of (or seen for that matter!). Probably not as expensive as a spaceship, I think... Right?
"Where to you geuge our current chences, given the circumstences end the logs? Would it be smert to try end stell until e reel dimplometic delegetion errives end let those wheel end deel or would thet just eern us the contempt of the court?"
The woman shakes her head. "I doubt you'll have a full diplomatic group here within a year, if that fast. If your government works as slowly as I suspect it does, especially if you add travel distance in, I can't believe you're all that close, or you'd have found us a long time ago. So, stalling would result in you staying in jail for that time. While it's possible, I'd wait to stall if you get a death sentence, then stall the appeal until your diplomats show up. If you get a decade, you can wait to appeal when the diplomats arrive. If you get six months, you've already served a good bit of that."
Prison. Cath thought hard to herself. That thought was more pleasant then death. Being confined to a small space for extended periods of time was nothing new for her, after all. But I'll probably climb on the walls anyhow if there is nothing to do ...
"Eh?" Cath looked up from her thoughts, remembering an interesting titbit the lawyer mentioned. "Why would our government be slower then eny other?"
Aramis silently ponders the trial results and listens to the conversations. Without the willingness to mount an escape, he waits for the results of his trial.
He thinks that they do not understand the speed of the FTL warp points, even though their base technology is so much higher. It would be better to ally with these isolationists than further antagonize them.
"Your crew seemed agitated at how fast the trial was occuring. Some of them claimed it was 'railroading'. Apparently your 'justice' system feels it is fine to keep people in jail for months and years while it figures out what charges it wants to bring, decides on what committee will decide the guilt or innocence, and argues about what is or is not allowed to be heard by the committee. If your justice system is that asinine, I can't imagine your government works any faster. Plus, there are at least, from what we can tell from interviews and biology, at least three separate governments that will need to be involved in what to do about your espionage. I would be shocked if they managed to decide how to handle the meetings to handle this situation in a reasonable time, much less negotiations, diplomacy, contracts, deciding who goes, who doesn't, how much firepower to bring, and so forth." She shrugs. "Granted, I'm not an expert in governments, but the PolitSci folks explained it to me as best they could. They estimate your people won't be here for at least two, possibly three, years, unless someone goes maverick on them. I can't imagine it would take that long, but I guess the experts may be right."
"Hmph. Our system puts e bit more weight on intent, but we alreedy hed thet telk with your predecessor." Cath replied sourly. With a chuckle, she added. "Meybe e compound fector to *why* he wes your predecessor too, so let us not delve on it."
"Now, how does our redected log look like? Good for us - bed for us?"
"With respect, your legal system significantly deviates from Interstellar Law. However, it's obvious that you appreciate it. We shall see what the future holds." Aramis answers crypticly. As a fully trained Telthani lawyer, he sees no point debating the differences of legal systems, since it does not matter, other than to explain their perceptions.
The woman shrugs. "With respect, we didn't poke our nose into your system without being asked. I suspect if I had, I'd be facing legal issues too. Regardless of what kind. As to Interstellar Law, expecting our law to adhere to your law is, quite frankly, idiotic. Why would it? You might as well expect our meatloaf recipe to be the same."
-------------------------------------------------------------
The trial for Aramis, Cat, and Ynja starts out pretty much like the previous one, but with more innuendo and damning evidence. Every conversation Ynja had is dissected, almost line by line, and her words painted in the worst possible way by the Prosecutor. The fact she watched the incoming messages without transmitting the crew who was watching is taken as at default being manipulative and deceptive. Her every mis-statement or insult is portrayed as arrogance. Every claim she made about her government is portrayed in the worst possible light.
Cat's testimony is significantly less damaging, but next to Ynja's, it doesn't help much. Aramis is in the same boat.
Even some bits of the redacted log provided are played, with the worst possible interpretation of the files. And the Prosecutor reminds the Judician that all redacted information is to be considered in the worst possible light to the defendants.
When he's done, the Advocate starts. She brings in an expert to talk about Cyberpsychosis, and how heavy cybernetic replacements, like Ynja's, are known to result in isolationist, hostile, and nonempathetic personality disorders. She explains all of Ynja's actions away as the actions of a borderline stable cyber-psychotic. By the doctor's testimony, Ynja's cybernetics are extensive, primitive, and experimental.
She also calls Ynja's therapy post-cybernetic rebuild primitive and inadequate, and that Ynja's not responsible for any of her obvious hostility and psychological issues due to criminally subpar medical attention. Indeed, Ynja's superiors in their government should be charged with criminal negligence for placing such a borderline personality disorder into an exploration capacity.
Cat and Aramis are treated much more delicately. The Advocate acknowledges that they technically broke the law, but, that their orders required them to do as they did, and they had no awareness of the full requirements of Nutexian law. Also, they had no intentions of hostile activities, only understandable caution before approaching a new government. Their biggest problem was the obvious overconfidence in their own technology and foolishly underestimating the locals, believing them to obviously be 'neobarbarians' without evidence.
As to the redacted evidence, the Advocate reminds the Judician that while he is required by law to consider it in the worst light for the defendants, he is also required by law to consider it in the worst reasonable light, and that any government reasonably redacts some information, especially against foreign governments.
When the trial is done, and it takes nearly a week, the Judician retires. A week later, a judgement is rendered.
Aramis - Guilty of all charges. Punishments to be served consecutively and totaling 5 years in minimum security. The sentence is suspended for 10 years, with credit for time served. Additionally, Aramis's government is fined $1,000,000 bucks for his crimes.
Cat - Guilty of all charges. Punishments to be served consecutively and totaling 1 year in minimum security. The sentence is suspended for 2 years, with credit for time served. Additionally, Cat's government is fined $500,000 bucks for her crimes.
Ynja - Guilty of all charges. Punishment to be served consecutively and totaling 2 years in minimum security. The sentence is suspended for 4 years, with credit for time served. Additionally, Ynja is required to undergo mandatory cyber-psychosis counseling with a court appointed therapist for a term not less than one year, and must obtain a release from said therapist before she may travel. Additionally, Cat's government is fined $1,500,000 bucks for her crimes, and for their failure to administer proper treatment to her. Her therapy will be paid by the fines.
The advocate seems pleased with the results, and explains that 'suspended sentence' means that the guilty parties are not required to go to jail, but that if they commit any other crimes greater than a Minor Infraction, then the sentence immediately takes effect, with no credit for the suspension time (other than the time already served). At the end of the suspension, the punishment is annulled.
While Aramis and Cat, and the rest of the crew, may leave the system if they choose to, Ynja is under court orders to seek psychiatric help, and may not leave until it is complete, requiring at least one year.
In privet she seems ok with the out come, and is more than happy agreeing to any terms the Curt sets.
In a way she can see their point she dos have some real problems around groups and others that need to be addressed.
She will stay in good faith and be honest in her treatment, talking freely of her life and experiences but keeping political and milliliter stuff out.
She will ask that she ship be allowed to land and be her home, with deconstructionism weapons and redacted computer DB.
The crews are allowed back onto their ships, other than Ynja, who stays behind to undergo counseling and therapy.
The Nutexians don't try to keep the crew from leaving. As the ship is heading to the warp point, the Mylthani corral Aramis and inform him they have completed the analysis of the local culture, having had access to the system's information nets and entertainment.
Once they get Aramis, and anyone whom he wants to include, into the conference room, they begin going over what they have.
"We don't have everything, given the lack of time to complete the studies, but we have been able to confirm a working model of their psychology, culture, and overview of their technology level." EchosDarkly says, standing on the end of the table, rather than sitting on a seat, to have better eye contact with those assembled. "The Nutexians appear to have all left your origin planet over 1200 years ago, as a planned expedition. It would have been during the very early years of human exploration. They used a warp jump ship to travel to a system known to be several lightyears from a larger super giant star. They then cyro-slept while transiting interstellar space to the supergiant, and their fleet then began exploring until they found this habitable planet and binary system." The Mylthani explains, pulling his glasses off to clean them as he talks. "I am somewhat shocked at how much of a chance the original colonists took. However, they left self-charging beacon relays that used fission piles for fuel in their wake. They actually maintained contact with your home planet for several hundred years, maintaining technology updates. Their original fleet was outfitted with what was both cutting edge and experimental equipment at the time."
"They brought a space station with them, in parts, and assembled it on site. Automated mining craft were also brought, all in all, the fleet was one of the largest to leave your origin planet ever, I would guess. It appears the records of this colony were lost in the last 600 years or so, as nothing is in the records about it. Most likely during the first civil war." More fiddling with glasses. "The Nutexians all seem to have been either rich, or insane, or both. They were all trying to revive a period in your planet's history called 'The Wile West'. We are unsure exactly why, but they apparently considered a more primitive time better. It has been enshrined in their culture."
EchosDarkly sits down, and BlinksBrightly hops up on to the table. "This 'romanticism' can be found in their culture today. Each Nutexian is an individual, and is highly independent, with much pride. They have evolved a culture where no human has the right to order another to do something. It makes their culture... odd... to outsiders. An individual may only command those who agree to be commanded. Thus, they are something of a meritocracy, they credit ability over words. However, being armed at all times, they have also evolved a rather complex code of conduct to avoid going to war all the time. People are very honest and forthright, and anything you say is considered exactly what you think. So an insult is perceived to be thought out well and intentionally. We believe this is where Ms. Ragnavold was tripped up, she is... rather vocal... but doesn't exactly realize she's insulting when she talks. To the Nutexians, an insult is a thought out and premeditated thing, so to them, she was walking around provoking them as hard as she could every time she opened her mouth. They do not have a government that we would recognize, it's something akin to controlled chaos..." She rubs the bridge of her nose, and looks pained. "I believe an example you might understand is a modern aerospace fighter. Such craft are built to be inherently unstable, they literally want to go everywhere at once, only the modern avionics systems allow a human to pilot such a craft. The Nutexians are something of a political organism akin to this, the entire political structure is inherently unstable, but, their culture acts like a gyroscope, holding the whole thing together. It allows them to have extremely fast response to change, but means that outsiders find it baffling, as nothing seems to stay the same."
BlinksBrightly sits down, and LooksEarly takes her place. He rubs the side of his head. "Now, this is all, as the humans would say, speculative as hell, but here goes. We didn't have access to their hardware, and not enough time to watch and get good reads on their tech. However, from what we can tell, they are as advanced as us in most areas, and far ahead of us in others. Cybernetics, for example, they appear to be extremely advanced compared to us. They also appear to be more advanced than us on the power side. We never once saw the ships reload bunkrage for fuel. Nor can we find bunkrage tanks for fuel. As near as we can tell, they are not using fusion plants at all. We're not sure how they are generating energy for their ships, but however they are doing it, it equals or exceeds our output capacity. We lean toward 'significantly exceeds' on a volume for volume, given they can dedicate more mass to power and other uses that we have to reserve for fuel. Their weapons are not quite as advanced as ours, based on the scans we got, but, they can pack in many more than we can in the same hull due to their savings in fuel mass. Their engines are... well, pathetic. They don't appear to use gravitic drives, only old Ion drive tech. We are not sure why, they can plainly scan for gravitics, they have gravitic sensors. It could be cultural, or there could be some other issue we haven't identified yet. They certainly have the power for it." LooksEarly twists his hands in annoyance as he continues. "Perhaps the most.. radical.. departures from our tech is their modular ship configurations. They take up two to five times more volume than we use for a given level of ship. However, the modular nature does give them a massive flexibility. We believe the process grew out of their individuality, each ship is owned by one owner. No one can afford to build a dreadnought, but one person can command enough ship owners to form one. It would make their ships both more vulnerable, in that each individual component is weaker by virtue of being a component, but, the entire component ship is by far much more capable of shrugging off damage. They are extremely self compartmentalized, and if one component is damaged, it can be released and the ship it was attached to can then bring it's weapons to bear, making it all but impossible to take out weapon arrays permanently. It also makes their damage control much simpler, simply detach the damaged ship, and if possible, reattach it later, if not, abandon it. It also lets them form anything from a fleet of scouts to a few dozen deep space forts."
Aramis invited the entire command crew to hear the conclusions from the Mylthani.
"So, then it would seem that the best way to open diplomatic relations with these people would be to identify the individuals who influence the most people, right? Are there a handful of people with whom the rest of the populace align? In screening their entertainment, can you estimate the size of their "ruling" class? Is it based on family loyalty or purely individual behavior? Or is their society more fragmented?" Aramis questions.
Having spent most of this trip stock on his lapship with his small team of Scout Geologists. Prof McMilligon was happy to come and have a talk on the Culture of this odd system. He had been told the news of the judgments and was happy it was over, shame about the oddball Cyborg but by all accounts she was a pain in the ass to work with.
He took his seat and waited the others in the command crew to outline what they would be doing next.
"Weit, their entire fleet is a gient pile of lego?" Cath exclaims, showing her acute sense of what was important. *cough* "Wouldn't thet meke it very herd to heve eny reel engines. On the other hend, vector trust cepebilities ... Hmm." She drifted off for a while, preoccupied with the thought of glueing all the ships back home together!
The Mylthani look at each other, and their ears and tails twitch, indicating they are doing that rapid telepathic gestalt thing. Finally, LooksEarly speaks. "Well, that is a complex question. There are families that are, and as far as we can tell, have been quasi-nobility due to generation after generation of respect. There is a reinforcement feedback, as the family puts great pressure on their next generation to 'uphold the name'. The five most powerful families and their areas of influence are Williams, Military; McClintock, Military; Chavez, Economic; Jackson, Pharmaceutical; and King, Political. The Williams and McClintock families hold, between them, 90% of the identified command spots in the Military. However, that is questionable, as we do not have good data on their military structure, only what we've identified from news feeds we had access to. Approximately 30% of identified political posts are held by a King. The Chavez family seems to be involved in over 60% of the economic enterprises in the system that are not medical related. The Jackson family seems to have 80% of the market on medical related research and development, including cybernetics." The Mylthani makes a vague motion with the hand. "The specific people who make decisions varies, based on the situation. However, from what we have seen at least during our recent 'emergency', 85% of the decisions are made by less than a hundred individuals, at least during the trial and fallout from it. Of those who made decisions, not quite three-quarters were from those five families. Normally I would suspect some 'behind the scenes' players, but the culture argues against it. Likely, those who made the decisions actually made them. Not that someone behind the scenes might not have influence, but the decision makers seem to be the decision makers, not puppets."
"That is very interesting, could I ask, how are system resources allotted of everything seems to be voted on. How is ownership mainlined and resources given to each group, Policeing, Medical, schooling, Army, Space fleet etc."
He this sits back looking a bit sheepish has hes never spoken so much on of these meetings before. Nominally just saying yes or no when told to take his team and his lab ship out to do a local system survey.
"I see. Excellent analysis. We need to include that in the report to headquarters. For any diplomacy, they need to concentrate of those individuals prioritizing those families." Aramis concludes.
"We aren't entirely certain, Professor McMilligon. It appears they are a very pragmatic people. Those with power and money are expected to 'foot the bill' for things required. Sort of a 'those whom we give the most too pay the most' mentality. Policing seems to be shared by the larger factions as a common cost. Military spending is also paid for by those who have the most accrued to them. It is surprising their military is so large. It appears they have no natural enemies off their own planet. Their entire space force appears to be a hedge against hostile incursions, despite having had none for their history. However, from what we can tell, their ship building has increased since our incursion."
"They ere militerising? Hmm, expected I guess if they ere truly isoletionist. If not .. well, it is not es if they cen ectuelly go very fer! Right? Er meybe they ere once egen e bit interested in seeing their surroundings - now thet they know where the jump point is." Cat speculates. She wasn't sure how she felt about the prospect of having other 'nation's' ships zwooping about out in neutral space. She had sorta grown accustomed to planting her flag on all the interesting stellar features ...
"Thank you that is most helpful, if they are upping the ship building then are they going expansionist"
He sits back and whats to see what others say.
He looks at a pad outlining the restocking of his lab ship.
"Is it clear that they have the technology to utilize the warp points?"
"We are unsure sir, they have gravitics, which indicates sufficient technology. They also arrived via warp points... however, we didn't pick that up, and they are using very old Ion propulsion drives, not gravitic drives. Gravitic drives are required to use the warp points."
Ivan strokes his chin at McMilligon's comment. "Maybe they are going expansionist, and good for them if they are. But I vould be villing to bet that ve stirred up their already nahtural paranoia. They're now vorried about others like us showing up, so they're building guns and glory. At least that is vhat I think."
Nods as the comment is made but says nothing more.
"Well, unless they figure out the new end improved jump-node formula they probebly won't go fer ..." Cat nods to herself. "Whet is our next step - try cetch up with the fleet?"
"I think our specific presence in this system will aggravate any diplomatic efforts. After we file detailed reports of our experiences and speculations with the commander of Pantry who will take over as system commander until an envoy arrives, we can stock up and get back to exploring. Any other ideas?" Aramis asks.
Shakes his head happy to be getting away from this system.
After exhaustive debriefing in the Nutejes system and handing over the command system leadership to another scout crew, the Stargazer warps out to SG-011. Then, upon resupply and several training exercises to shake the rust from the crew due to their incarceration, Aramis orders a couple of probes into SG-015 to restart their exploration mission.
Go's to his Scout lap-ship and his Crew of Scientist.
"Well the scout fleet commander, Captain Ramirez will have us doing training now we have warped out of SG-011, over the next few weeks will will be doing that and getting resupply. I want the ship up to full speck and ready to do a full ground servery. Wilson find us a space rock we can land on for training. Something big with some atmo. well we all have work to get on with, I will see this, it is good to be out that system. we will have a small party at 20:00 hours, Rill get that Gin out you had hidden."
The crews actually just have to bring up the pre-existing scouting report from 015, as it was already probed, at the same time that 016 was. It's just that in all the excitement, everyone forgot about it.
Star Type : Red Dwarf Size V
Spectral Class/Color M/Red
Warp Points : 1 (Estimate)
Orbital Specs
Orbit 0: (Habitable Zone) Planet - Asteroid Belt No Gravity(0 G) Density (Light)
Orbit 3: Planet - 1600 km Very Low Gravity(0.0625 G) Density (Very Light) Axial Tilt (0 degrees) Rotation (Tidally Locked) Atmosphere (No Atmosphere) Hydrographics (No free-standing liquid. Desert) Climate (Frozen ) Avg Temp (-41 or lower C) Biodiversity (NONE) Planetary Year (1 Years S)
Orbit 4: Planet - 8000 km Low Gravity(0.46875 G) Density (Light) Axial Tilt (90 degrees) Rotation (20 hours) Atmosphere (Thin, Tainted) Hydrographics (No free-standing liquid. Desert) Climate (Warm ) Avg Temp (35 C) Biodiversity (NONE) Planetary Year (2 Years S)
Orbit 11: Planet - 9600 km Low Gravity(0.5625 G) Density (Light) Axial Tilt (40 degrees) Rotation (50 hours) Atmosphere (Trace) Hydrographics (No free-standing liquid. Desert) Climate (Frozen ) Avg Temp (-41 or lower C) Biodiversity (NONE) Planetary Year (1911 Years S)
Orbit 16: Planet - 3200 km Very Low Gravity(0.125 G) Density (Very Light) Axial Tilt (40 degrees) Rotation (Tidally Locked) Atmosphere (No Atmosphere) Hydrographics (No free-standing liquid. Desert) Climate (Frozen ) Avg Temp (-41 or lower C) Biodiversity (NONE) Planetary Year (344639 Years S)
Orbit 19: Planet - Asteroid Belt No Gravity(0 G) Density (Average)
So after we review the probe reports, we secure all parasite vessels to Stargazer and warp into SG-015. Per routine, the crew stands at battle stations upon entering the new system. Aramis requests a full active sensor sweep. Then, he requests communications to record and broadcast a message within six hours of entering the system in case any Nutejas are here, "This is the scout vessel Stargazer of the Free World's Alliance. Our mission is peaceful exploration. Please contact."